Mid-Month Madness

Can you believe January is already half over?!  I certainly can't.

So I wanted to write a quick post about something that I've been seeing a lot of Facebook and other social media sites and even hearing from people in person.  This post may not be for everyone so you don't have to continue if you don't want to read a rant.

For about two months now I've adopted a very clean eating style.  I push myself very hard to eat healthy.  In the past two months, yes I have slipped up a couple of times but I never let it defeat me.  I'm always going to keep pushing forward and eventually clean eating will become such a habit that I won't feel the overwhelming desire to eat honey bbq wings or something in that category.  I'm extremely proud of myself and am absolutely loving the way eating healthy makes me feel.  I just never realized how bad I felt eating fast food everyday until I stopped.

Anyway, in person and on social media I've been seeing people get extremely uptight when it comes to someone who is eating clean or striving to maintain a clean diet.  Each person adapts their diet differently as well.  Sometimes people will choose to be vegan, some won't.  Some people will choose to eat meat, some won't.  Some people do not want to eat carbs, some do.  The problem that I've been seeing is that people make it seem like such a BIG DEAL that a friend or family member wants to eat healthy.  It's almost like the healthy decision that you are choosing will INCONVENIENCE your friends or family.  It's as if when you say no to cake or cookies you have genuinely hurt their feelings.

((WHAT!?))

To me, that is the most ridiculous concept.  I almost can't even grasp my head around how someone could give another person a hard time for eating HEALTHY.  The person who chooses to eat healthy has probably been thinking about it, planning meals, and asking for advice from coaches and mentors to make a GOOD change in their life.  I think ultimately everyone should strive to eat healthy more than eating poorly… but if you don't want to…OK.  I'm not going to make you feel bad if YOU want to eat McDonalds everyday but don't rain on MY parade for eating a clean, non processed diet when I tell you I don't want to go with you.  I'm not forcing you to eat healthy so don't try and force me to eat unhealthy.

I did my advocare 24 day challenge over the christmas holiday and I was always get people saying things like, "it's the holidays, you're supposed to eat this stuff".  No, actually I'm not.  The diet that I am choosing for myself does not include mini hotdogs or mac'n'cheese no matter how good they taste or smell.  I also get annoyed and SAD when people say they will never be able to eat healthy… like what?  Yes you can, you are just choosing not to!  It's all mental, I promise you.  (And also scent driven in my opinion, lol…)

Now, not everyone is making these comments in a way that is malicious, but I think the better thing to say is "that's great" or "i'm happy for you".  It's really not that difficult to just say something simple like that because it is already hard enough to completely change your lifestyle let alone receive criticism about it.  I do understand people giving certain people a hard time when they constantly complain about how they eat or how they don't eat and NEVER change anything.  That is something I really don't want to tolerate.

One of the other things that gets to me is when people say that eating healthy is too expensive… It's really not TOO expensive.  It's just as expensive as eating out, it just requires more energy to make your food.  Plus the internet if FULL of coupons for grocery stores to get things discounted.  Vegetables are actually very inexpensive.  You don't have to go to whole foods and buy all organic, the local grocery store has plenty of options at an extremely reasonable price.  It might just take a little effort to find the deals.

In our culture we shame people for being too skinny.  We shame people for being too fat.  And we even shame people for choosing to eat healthy.

It's kind of nuts!

Oh well, nobody is ever happy I guess. I just wanted to post my feelings about it because sometimes it gets me really down.

I have a few more posts planned to come out this month so I hope you continue to check back ;)