No Easy Way

I have become increasingly aware of how my presence sometimes makes people feel uncomfortable. Sometimes when people first meet me and find out that I'm a vegetarian and see how thin I am, it spurs them to go onto crazy crazy diets, especially when they don't feel good about their own self-image. And it has happened once again while here in Texas. The woman I am living with is going on a diet of just eating lean chicken and salad. She is looking to me to affirm her eating habits, which I don't feel that I can whole heartily do. What most people don't realize is that since I'm a vegetarian and have trouble digesting some foods, that I'm keenly aware of what my body needs and how it should be prepared for me. I can't tell her what to eat. But it breaks my heart to see her not engage in the whole food pyramid in the quest to loose a few pounds.

It also is a struggle for me to watch people change their diet for a period of time, but not change their life habits. While I am not the type of girl to go to a gym, I do have a lifestyle based around walking. It's one of the reasons I love being here in Denison, I can literally walk everywhere that I need to be! It reminds me of Pittsburgh and downtown Madison and Oakland. God has blessed me with legs and I am going to use them as long as the distance permits (and sometimes even when the distance doesn't permit ;) ). To seek to change your diet, but not to adopt some type, any type, of physical movement isn't the way to go about changing yourself.

It's also hard for me to watch people try to seek out an easy way, be it just changing a few food items while keeping the way they are prepared (like frying vegetables), or refusing to exercise in some way shape or form. There is no easy way to being healthy. I can tell you straight up that being a vegetarian is not easy. It means being creative with food choices. Insisting that there be a vegetarian option. Seeking out someone to tell you what is in the dish before you. And sometimes hurting people's feelings, when they make you a dish out of love that you wouldn't be able to eat without becoming sick.

Our American culture tells us to seek out the easiest and quickest way - buy this pill, exercise this way, or just drink this liquid, but nothing has been proven to substitute engaging the food pyramid properly and moving your body. But that isn't what we want to hear, because it isn't easy.