I haven't got much to say on this subject other than, good lord sometimes it's hard! Eating with non-vegans once in a while, like sharing a meal at a dinner, or going to a café for lunch isn't really that hard, most of the time you'll get questions etc, but other than that it's fine. The trouble arises when it comes to family.
My father is a diabetic (type 2), he's overweight, has constant migraines, terrible teeth and arthritis. This is only the health problems that I know of, there are always little things that we don't consider health problems until we change something and it goes away. Evidently, he doesn't know everything I know about veganism and why I chose to eat like this, but he's been very accepting, although challenging at times. He's biggest issue with my diet, as it has always been is: size. I can eat an immense amount of food, less has never been more to me. On a high-carb low-fat vegan diet, restriction is a no-no, and one of the reasons that I chose this way of eating is because I know that I simply can't restrict, I'll only end up binging!
For my dad however, the mantra of trying to restrict what you eat and how much of what is so deep set in him, that he has great trouble with me eating larger amounts of food, even though he himself is obese and diabetic... If you've ever seen some of Freelee the Banana Girl's videos, you know how much she eats, and I eat nowhere near as much as she does, I simply can't. So in my vegan world, I eat very reasonable amounts of food! Yes I eat more than someone who is an omnivore and calorie restricts, I eat exactly what I feel that my body needs, and it's taken me a long time on this vegan-lifestyle to learn the balance I need between fruit, veg and cooked-carbs. Therefore it really just winds me up when my dad try to play "how much are you allowed to eat"-God. Obviously neither he or my mother did a very good job of teaching me how to eat properly and thus we all suffer from obesity and health related sicknesses.
*sigh*, the trouble of being you parents child is that no matter how old you grow, I'm nearly 20, you're always they're child somehow, and it's hard for them to relinquish control. Thank goodness that I have my own apartment, my own kitchen and my own food! I'm only here for the summer.
Today my dad asked me, after denying me one last potato which I then snatched myself, "how many potatoes how you had?", after him having chomped down a tiny bit of salad, a couple of potatoes, large splotches of butter, feta cheese and steak. I answered "I don't say anything about your food, you don't say anything about my food". I love my dad, he's the smartest person I know and I am eternally grateful that he's my dad, but sometimes he just grinds my gears ;)
- Elk
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