The Alameda County Fair - My First Nutritional Challenge On Day 3

Just because I eat 100% plant based vegan, I am not going all hippie on you. I still love my county fairs, 4H, FFA, horses, and the country lifestyle embracing the 2nd amendment. On day 3 of my whole plant based nutritional adventure, I was going to face a huge challenge: fruit and vegetable drenched in fat and sugar and bbq-ed meat everywhere. This adventure is called The Alameda Country Fair.

After a bowl of muesli (rolled oats, dried raising, amaranth, ancient grains, shredded wheat, rasberries, blueberries,  and silk plain non-dairy joghurt), I joined my husband Clay and my granddaughter Adriana to hit the road to Pleasanton to go to the fair. I packed a banana just in case, but expected to find at least a veggie burger, squeezed juice or such at the food stands. After all, it is a farm fair and naive as I was, I actually looked forward to find cooking demonstrations with vegetables or a vegan booth with products from farm to table in the exhibition halls. Well, I found one organic grocery delivery service based in Sonoma Valley and that was it. Every smoothy was made with sugar and dairy, no juice booth at all, and no, not even a vegetarian burger for lunch. I even had to look a while until I found a bottle of cold water to purchase. Most beverage vendors only sold booze or sodas. I was very happy about the banana in my fanny pack while Clay chowed down a steak sandwich and Addy licked on her icecream.

There must be more vegans than just myself who like to go to a county fair. I think of having a 100% based plant food booth at a fair where I can demonstrate preparing easy recipes and talk about my choice of nutrition. Not sure what it takes to get the license. I have to look into that. A county fair should be about different ways of nutrition and not just selling jewelry and junk.

I am proud that I did not fall off the wagon. I did not cheat on my new way of eating. I enjoyed the fair, went to see the horse races, chilled in the shade while Clay and Addy hit the roller coasters and looked forward to eat a piece of my vegetable lassagne leftover from the day before when we were back home. My glucose was on an all-time low telling me to be more prepared when going on a trip and always have enough food with me to skip a meal. Speaking from glucose, I already had to dial down the insulin units I shoot in the evening because my glucose level in the last two days has been between 60 and 85 and this is a miracle for someone like me who struggled to keep it below 200 most of the time. I am so grateful for this new way to control my blood sugar without any pills and with a lower amount of insulin. I can't wait to see the next lab tests.