Sometimes I think Harrison isn't moving fast enough on this vegan train that I'm on.
Sometimes I think he's only there because we are. He'll eat what's going, but if he had his 'druthers he would eat differently.
The experts on the cruise, one in particular, urged me not to push too hard. He encouraged good substitutions, providing non-judgmental information and above all patience.
I sometimes even lose some sleep thinking about the piece of chicken he ate at some family function, or the bacon I know he wants on his sandwich, which I say he can't have.
As a parent, one never knows which lessons are actually breaking through to a teenage boy.
Then I get a glimpse into how far he is already and what he is actually absorbing.
Yesterday the family and I attended a benefit for the Alzheimer's society. The theme was Mardi Gras. Beads, masks, music and colours were abundant. I knew to expect a 10 course meal, but wrongly assumed that it would be mostly meaty fare.
The chef is to be commended, as the dinner table was abundant with cajun veggies, a vegetarian pasta, delicious salads, and a gumbo which was PACKED with okra, tomatoes and peppers, and served over rice.
The beef entree was at least HALF sauteed red, yellow and green peppers so one couldn't really gorge without getting a healthy dose of veggies. However, I was AMAZED as my entire family passed on the beef entree, with the exception of my mom who took only a few bites. This is real progress.
Being "vegan-ish" helps on nights like this, as I don't utterly reject food I can eat around. I met many on our cruise who don't do this and can only say that it seems their lives are filled with unnecessary stress in the name of plant based eating. No Subway Sandwiches cut with a meaty knife, no non-vegetarian restaurants who might grill their veggie burger on the same grill as the hamburger, etc.. etc..
Let's face it. As healthy as we plant eaters purport to be, stress is also a killer. Stress is also a fattener. Stress is also aging. And stress is also a cause of sickness and disease. So I am really striving to reduce this kind of stress by rolling with things. Laissez les bonnes temps roulez!
So back to the young man. Course after course, I saw him dive into everything for at least a bite. I saw him season his food with some chili peppers, some wedges of lemon, and eat the veggies and spicy food with gusto.
Most notable was a five year old girl seated at my table. Her dinner consisted of two cups of apple juice (aka sugar bombs), white rice with no sauce, white bread rolls with butter and white pasta with parmesan cheese. Dessert was white vanilla ice cream.
I know theoretically that "kids" eat like that, but haven't really seen it live and in person. Every dish passed before her was declared "too spicy" by her father, without even giving her a taste. To each, their own - but I desperately wanted to put at the very least a few carrots, some zucchini and peppers, some tomato sauced pasta with basil, some saucy okra and lots more water in front of her.
Our waiter refilled our water pitcher 8 times! Harrison can really pound that stuff back.
On the ride home, he commented on the girl's dinner choices. (Although "choice" is putting it mildly, since every entree was unceremoniously declared unfit for her before even tasting it).
"Did you notice that everything on her plate was white? It had no nutrition at all! It was just white rice, white pasta, white bread, butter, white cheese and vanilla ice cream!
And then he said an utterly profound sentence that will stick with me until the day I die.
"It wasn't even food." He searched his brain for the right word.
It was just... matter".
We talked a bit about how the body instantly converts processed items like that to sugar almost immediately.
"It was just... matter."
Bill talked a bit about unprocessed whole grains, like rice and oatmeal, and I mentioned how I am loving the proportions of my new Macrobiotic-ish way of eating.
"It was just... matter."
He clarified his position (as if he needed to) that he wasn't about to "go vegan" for his choices, and that he just liked many of the vegetables and grains that we eat, and that he just liked eating healthy "most of the time".
"It was just... matter."
He recounted a story about once going to a buffet, eating like that and feeling bloated and gross afterwards, and that's how he figured out that no matter how much the food looks good, he had to at least include things which had some nutrition in them.
"Just... matter."
He worried that unless kids learn to eat a variety of foods, their kid energy turns to teenage overweight and under health.
Just when I think things are never getting through. It matters. He gets it, even if he's not there all the way.
"It was just... matter."
The fact that he can recognize these things made me very calm.
I slept like a baby, regardless of what we ate.
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