If you’ve been following me for a while, then you know that since 2005 I’ve been eating a vegan diet, and since 2012 I’ve been eating exclusively fresh fruits and vegetables with moderate amounts of nuts and seeds.

And if you been following my IG profile – Health Glows – then you had a chance to follow our recent family trip through my stories.

The whole trip lasted 12 days, and on this trip were my 3 brothers – I have 4 brothers, but one was not able to join us this time due to personal reasons, one sister, one of the brothers’ wife, our mom and me. So, there were seven of us.

This was truly a dream trip, not only because of all the wonderful places we visited, but because we spent 12 days together and created beautiful experiences and unforgettable memories.

While the rest of my family eats a standard diet, with my sister not eating meat, I am the only one who eats a diet of fresh plant food.

One of the most common challenges that people present to me in their efforts to eat a raw diet is how to stay consistent in social situations or at family gatherings at which they are most often lonely in their dietary choices.

In these blog and video I want to share with you some ideas and a lot of inspiration to stay true to yourself, while at the same time be part of the family.

Through the following pictures, that ca be seen in the video, I will present you some examples of my meals on this trip. Notice that we mostly ate at restaurants.

I want to mention that it is absolutely clear to me that in a restaurant you do not pay only for the ordered food and drinks, but also for the entire ambience and service. And of course, all of that has its price and I respect it.

If I happen to enter a restaurant or caffe by myself, with my prepared food in my bag, I always order some fresh juice or water, and only then I ask if it is okay that I eat the fresh fruit or vegetables that I brought with me.

However, if I enter a restaurant in a group of people, and I sit at that table that will definitely make a bill, I feel that it is okay to ask the staff to eat my own food at that same table.

First of all – preparation! I pack my food neatly and take it with me.

Upon entering a restaurant, I would simply politely address the manager / waiter / receptionist with the following words:

• Hi! I came here with my family, and they will make an order for them. However, I am on a specific dietary regime, so I have brought some fresh fruits/vegetables with me. Would it be okay if I sit with them at the table and eat my own food, please?

In every restaurant on that trip, I got nothing else but the kindest and most helpful responses to this request of mine. Every time I was allowed to eat my food without the slightest complain. It is usually NOT allowed to bring into the restaurant cooked food, but when they hear that it’s fresh fruit/vegetables, they most often don’t mind.

I do remember, though, it happened 2 times in previous years, that I called the restaurant in advance, asked to bring fresh fruit with me, but they told me that their policy did not allow it. I then asked them to just mash a couple of bananas, and top them with a grated apple and a bit of cinnamon and serve that to me. They did it very gladly and professionally!

First and foremost – exercise, because exercise is part of a diet. The excuse of not exercising just because you are traveling is a very unhealthy and illogical excuse. I repeat – exercise is part of a diet. It is necessary to:

• open, so to speak, the doors for glucose on the cells,
• ensure proper integration of calcium in the bones,
• break down muscle fibers in order to have new ones built through recovery,
• stimulate the lymphatic and circulatory system to work in order to ensure maximum delivery of nutrients to the cells,
• get the intestines working to ensure optimal elimination.

And now, let’s get to the examples from this trip. To see the pictures, please watch the video.

• In this picture you can see how I usurped the unused cabinet under the kitchen sink at our accommodation in Boston, Massachusetts.
  
  
• In this picture you can see my dinner that I made at our accommodation in Boston, Massachusetts, while the rest of the family ordered pizza. I made myself zucchini spaghetti in avocado sauce, seasoned with dried sweet red pepper, with fresh sweet corn and romaine salad. This was delicious.
  
  
• Here we were at a sushi restaurant in Boston, Massachusetts, where I ate grapes.
  
  
• Here we were at a steakhouse at Grand Canyon, I had my celery juice and tangerines.
  
  
• This is my hotel room dinner in Page, Arizona – very simple and extremely delicious: romaine lettuce, half an avocado, fresh sweet corn, 2 tablespoons of fresh sweet peas, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, portobello mushroom.
  
  
• And this is one of my brothers and I at a pizza place in Manhattan, NYC. While he ordered a pizza, I was allowed to eat my packed dinner. The ingredients were the same as when I made my dinner in the hotel room.
  
  
• And this is we in yet another steak house in Las Vegas, Nevada, with me eating grapes.

And these few examples show you almost all of my meals on this trip.

I sincerely hope that I have given you some practical and useful ideas and a lot of inspiration. Tell me in the comments – do you like these ideas and how do you eat when you are at a social or family gathering.

Until next time, I am sending you lots of regards and keep glowing!