By Maria Manazza
This article shares Maria Manazza’s personal experience and perspective through Natural Hygiene. It is not medical advice.
Tips on navigating gatherings, get-togethers, family functions, etc.
The holidays are just around the corner. Here in Canada, we will celebrate Thanksgiving soon. A couple of years into this journey, I stopped bothering with Thanksgiving dinners, and on a couple of occasions I fasted instead. I even avoided going to my family gathering for a year or two, but today I feel confident enough to deal with everything that gets thrown my way. Of course, that wasn’t always the case.
Have you ever found yourself the focal point, or at the center of attention during a gathering because you were eating the fruit or salad while everyone else was eating everything else but the fruit and greens?
Back when I first learned about the diet/disease connection, the information that I learned came so suddenly and unexpectedly (I had to cease operations of an entire farm to change my diet/lifestyle), so I’ll admit, I had trouble explaining myself and what I had learned in an understandable and direct way.
I was experiencing issues during dinner parties and gatherings because people would notice my new eating habits (and it didn’t sit well with them). Before I knew it, if I wasn’t careful, the whole table would be focusing on me and why I wasn’t eating what they were eating. The assumptions were eating disorder, crazy, neurotic, uneducated, etc.
It didn’t help my case at all that I was quite passionate and upfront about the new information that I had learned. However, that information didn’t flow and explain itself as it does today because I was not fully confident or in good health during those first few years. It required a couple of years of trial and error to get things right. It was a learning curve. We are not always as fortunate to gain the correct understanding about how to build and maintain health without going through misleading information first.
So, without possessing good health myself during that time, most of what I tried to explain to others fell on deaf ears, and the information I shared didn’t quite flow properly.
Fast forward to today, and I can say that I’ve learned a couple of important lessons on how to blend in and how not to become the focal point, or the center of attention, when surrounded by mixed eaters if I don’t feel like it.
1. When preparing food, bring another plant dish in addition to that giant salad or fruit plate you’re bringing. This dish is probably not for you (rice dish, potatoes, cooked vegetables, gourmet raw dish, etc.), but the people observing will feel more at ease and won’t feel the urge to attack, seeing you with all that food!
2. Try not to preach. Do not bring up the topic of health and how unhealthy meat is unless someone else brings it up first because you’re outnumbered!
3. Load up your plate with what you want to eat and make no apologies. If someone asks, tell them you may dig into other foods after, but right now you want a delicious salad!
4. If someone asks you why you’re not eating certain foods, explain briefly that you simply do not feel your best eating them. It’s the long-winded explanations that tend to grow into situations we didn’t intend to get ourselves into.
By doing things differently, the others feel the reflection. It’s as if your healthier habits are reflecting and causing them to examine what’s on their own plate. Most people do not want to think about their unhealthy choices (especially around the holidays), so they feel better about themselves if they attack or ridicule what you’re doing.
It’s nothing personal. It’s a form of self-protection and old habit/tradition preservation. Most people don’t welcome change, and they will almost always take the path of least resistance.
Little do they realize that their path of least resistance eventually builds to a higher level of difficulty in their lives when their toxic accumulations overload and burden the body.
We must be patient and kind no matter what situation we find ourselves in, and the best course of action when dealing with people is to lead by example because people notice and become curious when someone breaks through societal programming and starts doing things differently.
True health is wealth because when we are healthy, we naturally live in the moment because there is no longer all that pain getting in the way!
Does anyone have any stories they want to share about these types of situations? I remember when I initially stopped eating meat (wasn’t even vegan yet), my mother-in-law freaked out, wondering what I was going to eat at that point. Little did she realize just how far back to our natural ways I would go. Today, over 10 years later, she eats very little meat herself, and it was once a daily staple.
Mariah 🍎 Heal Thyself
Healthy Self…
