9/17 Meating Resistance?
I shared with you the fun experience I had at our local coffee house with the vegan curious, excited barista. She made me feel like a giver of knowledge…a vegan role model for the next generation. Okay, maybe I had consumed too much soy, but her curiosity and willingness to just ask made me so happy.
Over the past four months of our new vegan lives we have had very different experiences than that of joy and excited curiosity. In many cases, when I have told a friend, family member or casual acquaintance about our new vegan experience, they have looked at me as if I had told them that I was reviving a branch of the Manson family.
Many people do not want to hear that you think you are doing your part to save animals from cruelty or shrinking your carbon footprint by reducing your consumption of meat. Many react as if you are holding up a great big mirror and saying…this is what I am doing, what are you doing? This phenomenon is so interesting to me because I have never felt that way.
I have been veg for so long because it has mattered to me…not because I needed it to matter to those around me. It is only now, 13 years into my journey that I even have the desire to share what I have learned along the way. When people would find out that I was vegetarian they would always bust out with… “I could never do that, I like meat too much or I need too much protein, or I could never give up chicken.” When the original question was always something benign they had asked like…why aren’t you eating your chicken? I wasn’t actively recruiting for the veg army or suggesting that what they were eating was wrong. It was just what I was doing.
I am sharing this with you because sometimes when you are starting out on your veg journey…people may question, belittle or challenge you in a way that feels bad. It can feel like a lonely place or in the very least, a new place. People may act that way because they are fearful or intimidated by your change. When you are in the process of creating positive changes for yourself, the people around you may feel left out or intimidated. It may also make the people around you question what they are doing or not doing for themselves. We can’t control how people view our lives or our choices . What we can do is continue being inquisitive and open, be proud of ourselves for our willingness to try new things and to allow ourselves the joy of change and growth one meal at a time.
Have a delicious day.
Tags: compassionate eating, going veg, trying vegetarian, vegan, vegan challenge, vegan experience, vegan transition, vegan wannabe, vegetarian transition
