The art of the compromise

Well, the road trip was great. I was able to keep my Zyrtec at a sufficient level to cope with toxic pollen levels. The sky was blue, the air was warm. And if you can’t have a good time rambling Texas hill country, there’re really no hope for you. I’ll post some pics from Fredericksburg and San Marcos tonight.

And, since we’re coming to the epic end of the processed food embargo, I’ll go ahead and say it, I did have a few little indiscretions along the road. One was at Kreuz Market, where we stopped for smoked beef shoulder, jalepeno links and the Potato Salad of the Gods. One, they do not provide forks. As the sign notes, your fork is at the end of you arms. What they do provide is sliced white bread with which to convey your smoked meats to your mouth. And while I can see sausage as a finger food, shoveling slices of smoked beef into my mouth with my mitts is just one step to far. And, no, it was not artisanal, stone ground, brick oven baked wheat bread. ‘Twas plain old generic sandwich bread. And, it was good. The second was (and really how much temptation can one woman reasonably be expected bear?) a Mexican Coke. Ain’t nothing like the real thing, baby. And after 5 minutes of deep, personal, agonized deliberation, I drank deep. If you have the opportunity to eat lovingly hand-crafted barbecue and a Coke made with cane sugar, and don’t take it, you have truly allowed your morals and personal honor to be horribly compromised.

In the end, that’s going to have to be the way this goes on. Making those individual decisions. I feel so much better limiting the amount of processed food that I eat, I don’t see a way I can go back. My allergies are lower, my skin is clearer, I’m sleeping better at night (probably directly linked to the allergies). But if I’m going to continue, I’m going to have to go in with the clear cut understanding that sometimes you will chose differently. You may go to a diner that has outstanding pancakes, made from scratch, melt-in-your mouth and lighter than air. But chances are they are going to bring you maple-flavored sugar water and butter-flavored spread to put on them. Don’t miss the pancakes. There are too many fantastic things in life. I’m going to make the commitment to do whatever I can to keep myself on the food straight-and-narrow for most of my meals. And when I get the chance to sin, I will sin BIG, and make sure it’s worth every naughty, naughty bite.