Commitment is Often Inconvenient

Once you make a deep commitment to personal health, sometimes moving through life is inconvenient because standard, status-quo society isn’t set up to easily and effortlessly support healthful habits and decisions.

Recently I went on vacation with my family which involved moving through airports. My husband and I avoid unnecessary radiation when given the choice so we opt for manual pat downs rather than walking through the TSA body scanners. This requires us to show up early, wait patiently, and be super nice to the TSA agents who are somewhat inconvenienced by our request. When the line is long and you’re in a hurry to get to your gate, requesting a manual pat down is unwise. You won’t have enough time for the process, you’ll get agitated, and you may be less than pleasant to the TSA agent. Devoting more of your time to the process by doing everything involved to show up early is inconvenient but worthwhile to avoid unnecessary radiation which is considered a universal carcinogen. Avoiding known carcinogens when possible is a commitment to long-term wellness.

Finding vegan food in airports is getting easier but that’s not to say it’s easy. We flew into the Dallas-Fort Worth airport after already consulting the Happy Cow app which helps travelers locate vegan options nearby. We had quite a walk to the Friday’s restaurant which offers the vegan Beyond Burger which my family likes. I almost ordered a salad with substitutions but the waitress said the kitchen would probably not comply. So I ditched my family and Friday’s and went to Ling & Louie’s Asian Bar and Grill where I easily ordered steamed edamame and a delicious Asian Chopped Salad with mixed greens, cabbage, red bell peppers, avocado, tomatoes, cilantro, green onions, cashews, sesame-soy dressing and added tofu. It was excellent though I ate alone which is not entirely inconvenient, but somewhat unfortunate.

On the airplane we sat in the middle-tier Premium Economy seats for which the ticket price included a meal on the long leg of our travel. American Airlines offers vegan options for their First Class customers so I knew that the America Airlines kitchen prepares vegan food. I contacted American Airlines before our flight date to request vegan meals for my family but were told that was not an option for us. Instead we were offered a meal choice consisting of either chicken or an edamame salad with conventional egg-based mayonnaise. Since we knew this ahead of time, before boarding our first plane we stocked up on TSA compliant plane snacks. We knew from research that TSA does not allow containers of hummus, salsa, guacamole, or nut butter larger than 3 ounces. (By the way, you can carry on a rope, microwave, blender, or ice skates with 14″ blades, but not more than 3 ounces of staple vegan spreads. Go figure.)

I chose for myself dried pineapple, mixed nuts with raisins, bagged lupini beans, nori seaweed, and Earl Grey tea bags. It was slightly inconvenient for me (and probably the flight attendants too) to walk back to the plane kitchen several times to ask that my reusable tea mug be re-filled with hot water. Staying hydrated and warm was something to which I was committed and I’m glad I did as I felt great even after our long flight.

At our destination we were very lucky to be staying in a house surrounded by a yard of fruiting trees and in a town that has two excellent health food stores. The local restaurants are much like other places with a vegan friendly cafe or two and other restaurants that are willing to leave off the cheese, sour cream, or butter yet charge you for them. The Happy Cow app is an indispensable tool to help locate vegan dining options. Our house was complete with a kitchen so we mostly shopped at the excellent health food stores, picked fruit from the yard, and prepared our own delicious vegan meals. Having a full kitchen to use was a top reason for choosing to stay here instead of in a hotel. Some people may not like the idea of shopping and cooking while on vacation, but to benefit from wholesome, health-supporting vegan foods, this is often the choice one must make. 

Being committed to long-term health, wellness, and happiness will require extra effort, extra time, and often some inconvenience because standard status-quo society caters more to pleasure, excess, impulse, and addiction than to wellness. Floating downstream is easy, convenient, and painless in the short-term but it usually doesn’t cultivate strength. Swimming upstream demands fortitude and self-discipline but it’s the only way to get where it is that you want to go if what you want is different than what nearly everyone around you has: lifestyle diseases, weight issues, unhappiness, or pain. 

Writing this blog post while on vacation is inconvenient – it would have been easier to sleep or sunbathe on the beach more – however I’m committed to the regular discipline of writing about everyday health issues, topics, and concerns. I did set up a chair in the yard under the fruit trees and sun for composing on my laptop. Inconvenience can be tempered.

I truly believe with everything that I am that health, wellness, and happiness begins with a sense of self-worth. You have to believe that you are worthy of the extra effort, the inconvenience, and the added time to take as good care of yourself as you possibly can. You must be your own priority, your own responsibility, and your own advocate. Plan ahead, think through your agenda, do your research, commit to healthful choices, and enjoy moving through the world with peace, health, and happiness.