Why fit in when you were made to stand out? We know it’s hard to eat healthy alone. So here are 4 tips to make it all work!
It’s true that eating healthfully separates you from the commonplace crowd. (Unless your crowd makes cashew cheese and massages kale on the regular.) But it's not true that sticking out from the crowd is a reason to sacrifice your health and give up your plant-based ways for chicken wings just to "fit in."
Here are four fantastic tips to help you eat healthfully even when your friends and family don’t:
1. Judge a movie, not a person.
The reason you're a passionate plant-eater is for yourself, right? Whether you eat this way because of the health benefits or because it makes you happy knowing you're saving animals, these are both reasons that come back to YOU. So, keep it that way: inside YOU! There's no easier way to stick out (usually in an unpleasant way) than to go around preaching and critiquing. People don't like to be reminded that their eating habits aren't ideal. They don't want to be reminded of their lack of self-discipline or their not-so-ideal choices. That's their doctor's job, not yours, OK? So, when you're ordering in a group, nix the sarcastic comments about how you don't do this or that. Just order your thing as if it's a totally normal order and move on to enjoying eating it!
Friends Have Influence: Good or Bad
Food tastes better with friends. Eating socially has inherent benefits over eating alone—sharing, laughing, and savoring the moments help us to also savor the food we eat. But is it also a potential source to make us unhealthy, too?
2. Just do it.
Sometimes you just need a reminder that being different isn't all that bad. While it can sometimes feel hard to pave your own path and scary to reject the norm, it's a legitimate part of growing up and becoming a person who is true to themselves. We all need a little tough love at times, so here's your tough love: just eat your healthy food, be different, and don't worry about it!
3. LOL!
Most comedy stems from pain. Think about your favorite comedians: they all tell stories about their most painful, embarrassing, awkward, horrific experiences, right? Because laughing about it feels a heck of a lot better than crying about it. (And painful stories are often the most universal — we can all relate.) So, laugh out loud at your pain too! When a friend makes fun of your green juice, laugh it off. When your uncle makes fun of your "chia pet" pudding, laugh it off. The more you can laugh at the remarks from others, the less it'll bother you (and probably the less they'll continue doing it).
4. [Secretly] fit in.
Just because you eat healthfully doesn't mean you can't "fit in." You just make your own healthy modifications. When you're prepping for a party, and you go to the store to buy snacks, grab baked whole grain crackers, carrots, and hummus while your friends load up on the tortilla chips and queso. Instead of getting butter-ridden popcorn at the movies, sneak your own crispy roasted chickpeas into the theater with some pieces of healthy dark chocolate to boot. You sure as heck can do all the fun things everyone else does, and more because your plant-based diet will give you tons more energy!
