A few nights ago, my husband and i were at a meet & greet at a convention that he is attending while we are on vacation. I usually stay behind at home with my daughter, but since this event was being held early in the evening, we decided to all attend together. Besides, i am a sucker for fresh shrimp and such and i knew that there would be lots of that kind of yummy stuff around...
At our table, we had a few folks that i knew and a few others who stopped by to chat with my husband and his head of sales. Very nice folks, and my daughter was quite the charmer. I ate my shrimp (shrimp from this area is simply amazing....) and sipped a water and a diet coke as i people watched. As we chatted with hubby's head of sales, i mentioned that we were going to be starting this new way of life. You would have thought that i grew another head or was sitting there naked by the look i got. Here's some of the conversation:
me: Has Hubby mentioned that we are going to be starting a new way of eating?
friend: No! What will you guys be trying?
me: Well, i've been reading a lot, mostly from a book called Eat to Live and i'm interested in us becoming vegetarians and maybe even vegans. Our health and weight isn't the best, so i think that this would be a good way to for us to get healthy and eat.
friend: WHAT?!?!? But how are you going to get all of your nutrients? You know, most vegans look pasty because they aren't "really" healthy, Isabel. Those people look so unhealthy so much of the time!! I could NEVER be a vegan! You aren't going to force your daughter to do this, are you?
me: I think....
friend: You really need to think about what you're doing...(blah, blah, blah, blah and some more blah, blah as he sucked down his fourth drink from the open bar)
Is this how folks react to vegans/vegetarians??
Perhaps this is something that i just need to do for us and not have it be a topic of conversation. It kind of made me upset as this friend bikes and seems to be healthy weight. I thought that he would be full of words of encouragement instead of telling me that i was going to start looking "pasty". Just a quick glance at me or my hubby and you can see that we are unhealthy and walking billboards for diabetes, heart attacks and shorter life spans. I think that maybe looking 'pasty' would be a small price to pay if we are healthy....grrrr
Honestly, i think that our friend did mean well, but he's not in our shoes. He's not 80 pounds overweight (that's just me!) and can't run up a flight of stairs. He can ride a bike a great distance and feel/live life and enjoy it to it's fullest. Living life as an overweight woman, i feel like i'm sitting on the sidelines sometimes because i don't dare run or ride a bike.
Please don't misunderstand me. If someone is overweight and they are happy and can do things like ride bikes, and jog, i am thrilled for them. The thing is, i am overweight, and i CAN'T do these things and i WANT to do these things desperately. I want a good quality of life. I want to run and play with my daughter without having to stop to breathe. I want to chase her and catch her! I want to run a 5k. I want to be around a long time....and with my healthy and weight this way, if i don't change, and change now, i'm afraid that i won't be.
I need to re-read my Eat to Live book so i have answers if anyone asks me about eating this way. I doubt that i will advertise that we are eating this way, but i won't lie if anyone asks. And i'll have the answers that i need to answer any questions that are asked. I'll be prepared instead of feeling like i'm being attacked....because i bet i only feel this way because i'm not sure that i have all of the answers.
But then again, who does have all of the answers? ;o)
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