You don’t eat bread? No quieres tortillas? No pizza? Why? I’ve heard these questions countless times. Of course, I never think those questions come with malice. A tiiiiiiny bit of judgement? Sure. But mostly, I think people are genuinely curious, it’s different. And there I go for the millionth time explaining my reasons, only to get more questions. And sometimes, definite judgment. Over the course of the years, I have learned that it’s difficult to justify my choices, but then do I really have to? Or can I just accept being different, give zero fucks, and stay the course? Yes, I mexiCAN! It was a process, and if you read on I’ll show you how you can too!

At the Beginning

When I was in high school, I decided to go vegetarian and my family thought I was basically going to starve myself. Ay ya yay. They were not entirely wrong as my teenage version of vegetarian was cheese pizza, chips, a burger with no burger, frijoles, salsa… you get the picture. I wasn’t starving myself, but I was nutritionally starved. Thank God for the frijoles and Salsa! Anyway I got a lot of crap for this from my family, so I was traumatized. Fast forward to when I started to change my lifestyle and eating habits, it was difficult to confront family and friends. So, naturally I dreaded it. Sometimes, I thought it would be easier to decline invitations because there would be nothing for me to eat, and then people will ask me why I’m not eating. It was always difficult to answer the questions, because I couldn’t encompass all of my research into one short concise answer.  Plus, I wasn’t absolutely certain that what I was doing had merit or proof, it was merely an experiment and how do I explain that? It would always lead to more questions, and challenges to my justification. And then I would feel defensive. I mean what the heck? I owed no explanations to anyone. Why couldn’t they just accept it and move on?  

And Then I Looked Inward

This led to an introspection and my rationale of others reactions. If that was me asking questions to someone changing their lifestyle, would they sense judgement in my tone? Or would I ask out of sincere curiosity? If I was judgmental, then that’s on me, right? They say that your reaction says a lot about you and not the other person.  Perhaps the judgers can’t think of making the changes because it’s easier not to. It could also be that they don’t know all the information and feel it’s wrong because it’s different. You know the judgers, the cousins making the finger circling the head gesture for crazy (you know what I’m talking about), tías shaking their heads in disapproval, or just plain haters. Whatever it is, not cool. When people are trying to make a positive change, it is up to us to respond in a non-judgmental way. It is ok to be curious and ask because we can all learn from each other. Sometimes, people know something we don’t and why let our ego prevent us from learning something new or different? If you think it’s wrong, they will figure it out. Mind ya’ business.  Best thing you can do is cheerlead and wish them the best.

And Now Being Different is Easy

This all happened over the course of several years and many lifestyle changes too. Now, I don’t know why I was so afraid. At first, I felt a bit unsure of my decisions and the questions triggered doubt about whether I was doing the right thing. At this point, I have tried many changes on my path to better health. And guess what? Some things worked, some things didn’t. I’m not scared of failing and trying something else. I’m now a champ at not giving fucks about what people may think and keeping steadfast on my path. But make no mistake, that didn’t happen overnight. It IS difficult to be different. It’s hard to find something to eat at restaurants. It’s hard when you bring groceries and the fam tags it as your “healthy” food and won’t touch it (although that might be a pro, jaja).

Just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean it’s all negative. I have felt better now than I did when I was a shitty vegetarian in high school or in my twenties tackling pharmacy school on a takeout diet. I have been fortunate that my husband was on board with everything (after he gave me shit for it too, of course). It’s so much easier to plan meals if your partner is down. Your family and friends that truly love you will end up respecting and supporting you. They start to ask what you don’t eat to plan dining out or family functions. We have been known to bring our own tortillas! Sometimes, you’ll even catch them making some of the food substitutions you make. Shout out to my suegra coming through with those tasty almond flour tamales! MIL goals! Being different is being brave. I challenge you to make that positive change you’ve been wanting to make but have been afraid too. It starts with just one change to build that thick skin. Go for it and those who really love you will applaud you, those who don’t can suck it!! Hahaha!