01 Aug 2013 well… just one cookie…

Yesterday I traveled from Asheville to Jefferson City, Missouri with my husband Whitney, our senior dog Orson, and our newly adopted puppy (one week tomorrow!), Edie Peach, for the 50th wedding anniversary party for Whitney’s folks.  Traveling with Orson is old hat, but with Edie we weren’t sure what we were getting into with an 11-hour drive. Would she sit calmly? How often would we have to stop? And what were we going to do about eating?

Eating is one of the open questions of this trip. Eating on the road is always an open question for us. Our dietary decisions don’t often lead to just eating whatever.  I eat a primarily gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, caffeine-free, mostly organic, whole foods diet. I love cooking at home, rarely eat out, and processed foods are out of the question. Whitney is on board for this lifestyle in theory and, as he says, works to keep it in practice.  I had packed up a cooler of road snacks but we didn’t know just how dinner was going to work out.  But the food gods smiled on us in Knoxville when we happened to drive past The Tomato Head with outdoor seating! We could actually eat a real meal with the dogs and not just snacks in the car for our road food.

But with one meal down and many to go, the next few days will present opportunities to use discernment to make good choices.  I did already make the choice to have a cup of coffee for the drive.  But with all the baked goods, banquet meals and family dinners planned for those without my same dietary choices, I’m looking forward to making choices that are truly good for me.

So, with that said, I’m not going to have even just one cookie.  Even if it is a chocolate chip. And this choice is not one of restriction or denial.  Rather, on this trip, I’m looking forward to eating food which truly supports me.  I’ll let you know how it goes…