I’ve been thinking about this post on healthy lifestyle sabotages a lot since I got back from vacation. Of all the things that I thought might be professional roadblocks for me (eclectic taste, high standards, etc.), I never in a million years thought that the way I eat would find its way to the top of the list.
There aren’t a lot of vegetarians where I live; it’s really a red meat and beer kind of culture, but I’m not trying to convert anyone. I don’t carry some sort of veggie membership card, and I’m not a PETA member. I’ve never given a serious speech relating meat to murder or suggested that the vending machine might not be the best place to snag a healthy lunch – in fact, I can’t think of any comments I’ve ever made about a co-worker’s lisfestyle choice.
My diet (as in “the food I consume”, not “a slimming program”) has been a point of concern and fascination since my first day at my current job. For the first two months I fielded comments about “losing weight for my wedding” (note: no wedding is scheduled) and “being too healthy”, as if my tupperware of tofu and broccoli was secretly a commentary on their lunch choices. Next, I got to play the foreign exchange student from veggie-land during the quizzing phase: “Do you eat this? Or this? If you ate this, how would you eat it? What about this?”
We moved into avoidance a few months ago, which is uncomfortable but quiet. We’ve all been out to lunch together a few times, and socially there are no difficulties. So why the remarks about my soup and salad lunch? I promise that my healthy eating isn’t some sort of smug holier-than-thou attack; it’s just what works best for me. I’ve begun to feel that I need to take my healthy eating “into the closet” so it won’t offend anyone.
It’s such a strange and complicated (and gendered) issue.
Women and eating and control and weight and insecurity…it’s a nasty tangle. That’s why I love what so many of the good food bloggers have been producing for the past two years – like me, they’re just doing this for themselves. I eat healthy and work out because that’s what I want for myself. I hope that my decisions now will turn out to be the ounces of prevention that keep me around a few years longer, able-bodied and sound of mind, really living rather than passing the days. Also, vegetables taste darn good, and I like waking up with energy, rather than shuffling through my morning and burning out in the afternoon. Should that keep anyone from enjoying their stuffed-crust pepperoni pizza? Not on my account, please.
This has all been circling around with this: when I wrote yesterday that I had eaten nothing but junk food, I was referring to the list below.
- a Kind berry-yogurt bar
- an iced soy chai from Starbucks
- 4 falafel balls with baba ganoush and cucumber salad
- a piece of 85% dark chocolate
- a small handful of almonds
That’s “junk” to me because it contains few vegetables and a bit too much sugar (especially given how sweet the Kind bars are). It’s all still real food, and it’s definitely within the limits of what I “should have” eaten yesterday.
I don’t know why it’s significant, but there it is. Now I’m going to go finish planning the cheese plate for tonight’s get-together and bang out some emails.