I have a tendency to ask a lot of questions when I eat outside of my home. I always ask what comes on a particular item. I ask if it has dairy, I always make sure I know if there is meat. Is it frozen, does it come with... have that... spread with what??? And the person that is helping me usually doesn't mind, but sometimes you can tell they really don't feel like answering my questions, and when I do get that gleaming eye or smirky tone from an employee about answering my questions, I tend to talk about it to my husband.
The other day, apparently I was saying something and my 7 year old asks, "Mom, why don't a lot of people like you." I laughed and explained I ask a lot of questions and people don't always like my questions. To be honest, I'm really not that bad. If something seems complicated, I generally stay away from it to begin with, and for this reason I tend to frequent the same places on a very regular basis if we do go out to eat because I already know how to handle it.
But I AM a picky eater. I eat a lot, and I do eat a lot of variety, and I eat some funky foods. But I also DON'T eat a lot of different kinds of foods (beef, pork, dairy, non-vegan fats,white starch... other stuff). I was a vegetarian about a decade before it became trendy to be a vegetarian. Back in the day before there were little V's and GF's and icons of plants all over the menu to tell if something was veggie friendly, so when I went out I developed a habit of asking a lot of questions to find out what was in the food.
"Oh, well it just has bacon bits, that's not real meat."
Really?
So last winter we ended up in the middle of no-wheres-ville Texas in a cheap motel with a totaled car in the middle of apparently the only ice storm Texas has ever seen in their entire history. So when we left the next morning we had to get breakfast at one of 2 options, so we swung by Sonic with the mindset that they would have an egg wrap thing. Despite the fact that I eat meat now, there's no way I'll ever eat fast food meat. Fake meat... Faeat... feet....get it?
So when we pulled up I very politely said
"Excuse me, do you have anything that doesn't have meat in it."
"What do you mean.?"
"Like, no meat. Like, an egg and cheese only type of thing."
"I don't understand. I mean, we have chicken? Is that what you mean?"
I said thank you and left.
The point is, is that people don't know what the heck food is. We eat anything we want, and we do no research to what it comes with or how it's cooked, and then we get surprised when things happen. Like the number on the scale and the cholesterol charts going up.
So my husband announced that he wanted to loose some weight. So me, as his totally supportive and nutritionally educated, yet completely NON pushy or demanding wife... gave him some gentle advice on how to do that. Specific things he should watch, especially fats because he has family history of high cholesterol. So we went out to eat one day after church at a breakfast place. We both love a good omelette so he glanced at the menu, told me what he wanted, and then went to use the restroom. So as I looked over his item I noticed that this particular omelette had avocado in it. And cheese... and sour cream.. and bacon.... My heart started to hurt just looking at it.
So when the lady came I ordered what he wanted. Who am I to dictate what he eats! Except I got it with no cheese... or sour cream. And fruit on the side instead of bread...But I left the bacon on there, otherwise it would have been borderline a completely different omelette. When he came and sat down and I told him what I did he simply said, "Oh. I didn't even know. I just saw the avocado and thought it looked good."
The issue with my wonderful husband is that that man will eat anything. And because he has zero restrictions in his diet, he has never been trained to look at the details of what is in an menu item. He sees one or two ingredients that look good to him and goes for it.
So I urge people to develop a restrictive diet. Heck, even a fad diet like Paleo or GF if you want. Give up SOMETHING. There are PLENTY of things in this world you should not be eating and frankly I'd advise people to give up quite a few things in their everyday diet, but if your new to this then you don't want to overwhelm yourself. Just start off with something. One COMMON thing, like cheese, or sour cream, or bacon, or red meat, or butter, or... you get the point. Something that causes you to say, Oh, I should investigate what is in my food to see if that one thing I can't eat is in there.
There is no reason an omelette should include 4 types of fats, 3 of them high saturated fat. It's down right awful for you. By taking away even 2 of them you are reducing your calorie intake by hundreds of calories, just for that one meal.
If you are trying to make a change for the better in your life you need to teach yourself to be disciplined. Be uncomfortable with your choices. Push yourself in ways that you wouldn't have before.
People are trying to develop this freedom to say yes to everything, as if loosing your discipline in life is good for you or something. But I urge you to say NO when you don't want to. No to another cookie. No to sitting on the couch, NO to waking up feeling guilty every day.
Become who you have always wanted to be.
Dream Big. Inspire Others. Run Hard.
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