Being raised by two Dave Ramsey followers as parents, I’m sure to some degree, your version of reality might differ from some of your friends and classmates.
This past Saturday, we decided to drive down to one of the Portlandia-type parts of Nashville: 12 South. We had lunch at a place called Sloco; a sandwich shop that specializes in local ingredients.
After we picked out our vegan and vegetarian sandwiches, we each picked out a bag of non-GMO, potato chips; the only brand they carried was one I had never heard of: Deep River Snacks.
Near the end of the meal, you still had half of your bag of chips remaining, yet you asked Mommy and me for another bag.
You insisted, “But I want more for later. I really like these chips. They’re the best chips I’ve ever had.”
We explained to you that if you were willing to spend some of your remaining Christmas gift money on the chips, then that would be fine; but that we weren’t going to spend any more of our family’s budgeted food money on your extra bag of chips.
With little hesitation, you agreed. I walked you up to the counter and you purchased the chips: $1.62.
This sort of amazed me and Mommy.
It seems all you’ve ever spent your own money on has been stuffed animals and a few monster trucks.
But chips? Seriously, they were that good in your mind.
Unsurprisingly, that night for dinner you asked us if you could eat your 2nd bag of chips with your meal.
I figured if the chips really meant that much to you, how could I say no?
This story is so funny to me because I’ve never seen you so passionate about any food item.
And they were just plain chips. Just a few ingredients; potatoes, sunflower oil, sea salt.
Honestly, I’m proud that they were non-GMO (and kosher). That part is surely lost on you.
Good chips are good chips. And sometimes they’re apparently worth spending your own money on.
Yesterday morning my dad, Jack Shell, posted an interesting little story on his Facebook page. I thought it was worth sharing here on my blog:
“This is a McDonald’s cheeseburger I bought in November 2014. It has been in the original wrapper on a shelf in my office. The bread is hard and brittle but there is no mold, no smell, no deterioration. Rats and insects haven’t even touched it. I just killed a big rat in my office last week, too. I guess the rat didn’t recognize it to be food. Why should you? Remember this next time you are eating at McDonald’s.”
I suppose that my dad’s testimonial is not too shocking, considering most of us have already since Supersize Me at least once by now.
Apparently my dad decided to do a science experiment of his own. Even aside from the fact the rat didn’t find the cheeseburger and try to eat it, is the fact that nothing else in time between November 2014 and January 2016 tried to eat it either.
If nothing else, the meat itself should have attracted some kind of critter by the end of the week.
Plus, my dad mentioned nothing about a horrible smell that he, nor any other person that walked into his office, ever smelled for over a year. Because evidently, there was no horrible smell even though there should have been.
I think it’s impressive that McDonald’s is able to make a food product that A) is delicious to humans but B) is not attractive to insects or animals in the food chain whose job it is to take care of food lying around on the planet; while C) at the same time this same cheeseburger contains both meat and cheese but still does not smell horrible when left out for days, weeks, months, or even a year in just a room temperature building.
Should you have any doubt of the validity of my dad’s testimonial, it would be pretty easy to debunk. Just simply leave a McDonald’s cheeseburger in your office for over a year and then find out the results.
Granted, the fact that you could even make it more than just a few weeks would already prove my dad’s point.
My family has now officially been (and have remained) vegetarians for 4 years now; we converted in December 2011. (Of course, about a year after that, I went and have remained a strict vegan.)
Therefore, I feel the time is appropriate for another vegan/vegetarian post…
Seven months ago our family did a vegan/vegetarian tour of Pensacola, Florida. What we found was that Pensacola is indeed an extremely friendly area for those of us who live the alternative lifestyle of an organic, non-GMO, plant-based diet family.
However, unfortunately, Destin is absolutely not a vegan/vegetarian-friendly town.
We thought it was, as Whole Foods’ website was showing they had a store in the Destin mall.
But when we arrived, we soon learned the Whole Foods hasn’t been built yet. This was a major bummer, as we were depending on buying most of food supply there.
Our resort condo had a full kitchen, so the plan was to cook most of our meals there. Without a Whole Foods, this was much more difficult.
At first, we thought we had a saving grace in that Destin has a Fresh Market. Not so much.
I was officially disappointed as their foods were highly processed; even containing artificial colors made from petroleum.
We bought a few things there, but ultimately, we quickly learned that we would have to compromise in eating non-organic, GMO grown food.
Ultimately, though, the current plant-based score of Destin, as a whole, is extremely low. It’s comparable to just any other town that has chain restaurants.
You learn this the moment you Google “vegan restaurants Destin.”
A few of the restaurant choices were based on my son.
We took him to The Pancakery for a special M&M pancake for his 5th birthday. He loved it!
I special ordered off-menu a veggie burrito, but for the price and the size of it, I definitely was missing Whole Foods!
As much as I hate to admit it, because I love Jimmy Buffett so much, my wife and I were similarly disappointed at Margaritaville.
It was the first time we’d ever been to Jimmy Buffett’s theme restaurant. I must admit that the staff was extremely accommodating as to helping us figure out what we could eat there; as they did have a special vegetarian menu already printed up.
My wife is a vegetarian so it was easier for her to order. But for me, as a strict vegan, I had to explicitly explain what vegan means: no dairy, no milk, no butter, no eggs…
Ultimately I paid $17 for a few grilled veggies and pasta.
Again, the staff was nothing but helpful. However, it become obvious that as a chain restaurant that likely depends on Sysco (like nearly all chain restaurants), I assume their food was canned, boxed, and GMO; which is what is served in most prisons and public school systems, to my understanding.
My son was perfectly happy though. It was because of his birthday day that we were actually there. He had the $7 mac-and-cheese; which the waiter admitted was just a box of Kraft (which contains food dye made from petroleum).
We also paid another $6 for him to have to special battery-operated light up cup, filled with a cocktail of more food dye, as well as high fructose corn syrup.
Granted, when you go to a themed restaurant, you’re paying for the environment more than you are the food.
And I must admit, we definitely appreciated sitting right there on the Gulf of Mexico, with open windows looking out on to the harbor; while Jimmy Buffet’s music played.
Plus, the waiter brought my son some ice cream, knowing it was his birthday.
But the whole drive home my wife and I felt so horrible that we had just paid over $60 for that meal. (We tipped well there, as we did a The Pancakery; as we do not hold it against the individual establishment or its servers just because they’re not truly equipped for a plant-based family.)
Our experience with Margaritaville would have been the same way at pretty much any themed restaurant. We could went to the Rainforest Café and I’m confident my review would be the same.
Here’s the bottom line: Our family loves Destin. We will absolutely be going back the next chance we get.
But first, we are going to wait for that new Whole Foods to be built. That will take care of the issues we experienced.
Because then we can have a go-to restaurant as well as a trustworthy place to buy our groceries to cook meals back at the resort condo.
As for now, though, Destin is definitely not (yet) a vegan/vegetarian-friendly town.
As a guest blogger today, she tells about her conversion to veganism:
“After ten years of being vegetarian, I decided to go vegan with my boyfriend… two years ago!
At the beginning, most of the recipes I tried were dupes for our favorite dishes: I bought already made sauces, seasoned tofu burgers, hummus and a ton of other already made vegan products. Because I tried to keep gluten out of the kitchen, choosing products to buy was a little bit complicated and we soon fell in a loop of the same recipes over and over again.
However, we were happy! We felt great in our bodies, and more comfortable with our conscience. We had a ton of energy, my skin cleared up, and we were not hungry all the time.
During these first few months, we tested a lot of vegan products, but quickly realized that we were better off with cooking from scratch. First because the already-made products were often filled with a lot of additives, fat and salt. Second, well, their prices started to add up, and, well, I’m just a high-school teacher.
So I started to buy some vegan cookbooks, explored the internet for some recipes and tips, but most of all, I started to experiment more. I started making my own hummus, buying in bulk, and invented some fun recipes that I share on my blog. I also learned a lot more on nutrition, what vegetables to always have on hand, how to eat a ton of greens without feeling like a rabbit and how to use avocado in a 100 ways (okay, almost a 100 ways…).
When I read stories of people going vegan, they always say that they have lost a ton of weight. Did this happen for my boyfriend and me? Yes. We started to eat vegan and turned into supermodels and made the cover of Vogue magazine.
Not really. Not really at all. Not at all.
I’m guessing that we had too much fun cooking and tasting yummy recipes of cakes, cupcakes, chocolates, nice cream, cookies, noodles, pies, soups,… what were we talking about? Ah, yes, the most important thing that we realized through being vegan is that vegan food tastes amazing and is so satisfying. I did note an amazing skin improvement however… which is pretty amazing!
Really, I don’t see myself going back to eat meat or dairy any time soon, if ever.
Not only is vegan food incredible, the ethics that pushed us to be vegan in the first place is just too present for us to be tempted to go back.
So what’s the next step for me and my boyfriend? Well, we have recently started to grow our own food, and have found new ways to do it too.
This whole process as been such an incredible learning process filled with delicious discoveries. Well, I’m going to stop here because I’m starting to get cheesy, and well… that’s not vegan.”
This morning as my wife and I were getting ready for work, we were talking about the concept of how parents can influence their kids, even without trying to.
For example, no matter how much you praise your child on their abilities, talents, and looks, they can be just as influenced by the way you, the parent, see yourself.
As Bekah on The Wally Show explained yesterday morning, a mother who picks herself apart in front of the mirror will often, by default, teach her daughter to do the same; no matter how much the mother compliments the daughter.
We learn so much from our parents.
Today is my dad’s 59th birthday. So naturally, having just had this conversation, I’ve been thinking all day about the ways my dad made me who I am; whether he meant to or not.
I easily thought of 5 ways:
1) Diet:
The first story that comes to mind was back in the late 80s one time when my dad stopped to get gas for his Ford Ranchero.
I asked him if I could get a candy bar inside the gas station. He reluctantly said yes, but went on to explain how unhealthy candy bars were, because of “all that sugar”. He told me how little boys my age needed to be eating healthier foods.
That made me curious. I then asked him when the last time he had eaten he candy bar. He replied, “Years… I probably was a boy. But I shouldn’t have, because those things aren’t healthy.”
Similarly, I can also specifically remember, around the same time, we were watching 20/20 on TV and there was a special about how kids were having heart attacks because of their diets.
My dad warned me if I didn’t start eating healthier foods, I could end up like those kids on TV who had heart attacks.
In our house, we never had white bread; only wheat. I felt deprived.
Granted, those elementary school years passed, then my teens, then my college years, and I ate horribly the whole time; whenever it was up to me. I didn’t heed his advice.
But by the time I reached my late 20s, I started seeing my processed food diet catch up with me…
Now, look at me. I am the strictest vegan anyone personally knows. If it weren’t for my dad, though, I wouldn’t currently be the healthy man I am.
If it weren’t for my dad, these days I would be a highly medicated guy: I would take something daily for severe allergy and sinus issues; and I would still constantly be suffering eczema, paying for prescription medicine to attempt to alleviate it, but not cure it.
That all went away when I became a vegan 2 and a half years ago; not to mention I’ve effortlessly remained in the perfect weight range for my height and weight since then.
I am confident that my dad’s “you better stop eating candy cars or you’re going to be a kid who has a heart attack” comments greatly influenced me for the good; even if I couldn’t appreciate it at the time.
It was ingrained in me from my dad that it’s important to prevent cancer and disease; not simply focus on the cure.
Here’s a webisode that he and I made with my son; which hints on the fact we don’t trust microwaves:
2) Being active:
Plus, my dad was always physically active. During my entire childhood, he participated in martial arts; he was a black belt. Back in 1992, he even won 1st place in the sparring competition, for his division in northern Alabama.
(As for me in modern day, I regularly run and go mountain biking; plus I take at least two 10 minute walks outside during my breaks.)
Quite regularly, I when I was a kid, I would go with my dad to his Tuesday night practices and workouts. I knew that he would let me get a cheeseburger at Hardee’s on the way home if I went with him.
Here’s another webisode that my dad and I made with my son; which features my dad in one of his classic karate uniforms:
3) Letting me make my own decisions
And perhaps that’s another way he influenced me: He let me make my own decisions, even sometimes when he knew there was a better way.
I’m not sure I’ll be as hands off with my own son. I don’t know that I can be as Libertarian with my son as my dad was with me.
But had my dad not been so laissez-faire with me (a policy or attitude of letting things take their own course, without interfering), there’s a good chance I would rebelled and acted out as a kid, teenager, and even a young adult.
So twenty years ago, during the reign of grunge, I had the long hair and the baggy jeans; and my dad never once revealed he was concerned about it.
Of course, my dad also taught me, by default, to be calm-assertive.
These qualities are only the tip of the iceberg. In all this, it was not only his words, but more importantly, his actions that inspired me how to live my life.
4) Faith
Going deeper, I grew up with my dad reading me stories from the Bible for my bedtime stories, teaching my Sunday School classes at our church, and leading the youth group at church.
Therefore, I do my best to lead my own family in the teachings of Christianity; not out of tradition, but as a way of life- serving others, not judging them.
I seriously doubt my blog would be called Family Friendly Daddy Blog if it weren’t for him. He never cussed, so neither do I. Curse words never seemed necessary in order to communicate something worth saying.
5) Politics
And when it comes to politics, I see that I have become my dad as well:
“Vote for the lesser of the two evils; whether that happens to be a Democrat or a Republican.” I remember he told me that a couple elections ago and it’s stuck with me.
A mindset like that requires an individual to use critical thinking beyond what they are taught by either the left wing or the right wing.
After all, they are both wings of the same bird.
Ultimately, he taught me to question the norm. And I do. That is a huge part of who I am.
It’s even one of the main reasons my wife started dating me, as she has told me before, “You always seem so confident in what you believe, even if it not what most other people believe.”
So really, the way I see it, it’s undeniable that my dad greatly influenced who I am. Today he turns 59 years old. Despite whatever gift card my wife and I mailed him for his birthday, these words today are my gift to him more than anything else.
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