It’s Okay To Say No Thank You To Food & Alcohol

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FOOD & ALCOHOL!  This is a topic that I’m becoming more familiar with than I ever wanted to be.  I always knew food & alcohol had a special place in everyone’s lives but had no idea the true significance.

Every time you turn on the TV I can promise you’ll see either FOOD or ALCOHOL or someone talking about one of those two things.  You don’t realize it until you don’t do it anymore.

When I watch TV now I feel like a deer in headlights, has there always been this amount of food & alcohol in TV shows?  It’s a little overdone, isn’t it?

I was explaining to my therapist how the most challenging part of my new diet & not drinking is the people around me.  Towards the end of my session she said, this is the exact same conversation I have w people struggling from drug/alcohol addictions.  A difference is, people don’t understand & won’t accept why you aren’t eating.

There’s no circle of friends to cut out, because food is legal & everywhere with everyone.

To make things clear – I eat you guys.  You could say I’m just picky about food, & I don’t drink alcohol.  But I freaking EAT.

For the first few months I found myself explaining why I wasn’t eating, everywhere I went.  This always turned into a long conversation about my allergy problem.  Like there had to be an actual reason I wasn’t eating.  It was fucking exhausting.  Everyone has a thought & opinion.  For something I’ve spent every day thinking about for 4 months, they want to throw in their 2 cents after a quick 30 sec conversation.

Recently, I decided I don’t have to explain myself anymore.

Someone should be able to say, no thank you to food.  And someone should be able to say no thank you, to a drink.  Without explanation.

I’m not eating as much because I don’t want to.  I’ve lost weight, I feel more comfortable, my body is happier than it’s been before – that’s why I’m not eating.  Not necessarily just because of an allergy that welcomes opinions.  I just don’t want to eat that.

Since saying no thank you without explanation, the response I usually get is confused & even angry.  People are offended when you don’t eat or drink.

I don’t care.

I wanted to bring this up, again, because there’s people trying to lose weight.  And get healthy.  Or avoid alcohol.  And our society makes it really difficult on them.  Or there’s people like me, who are dealing with fucking weird health issues.

There’s too much food & alcohol around us, pressuring us all the time.  If we can take some of that pressure off in our interactions with others,  how helpful could that end up being for someone?

I was explaining how I’m trying to find activities to stay busy that doesn’t revolve around food & drinking, but whether it’s camping outside, going to the movies, watching live music, or even shopping – there’s almost always a side of food & alcohol.

I hate to say it, but no wonder we’re all a little overweight?  (Don’t shoot me.)

Now that I’ve been trying to eat better & notice this almost addiction our society has to food – I don’t know if I can ever close my eyes to it again.

Although we live in a society where there’s food & alcohol everywhere, we’re also in a society where so many people deal with addictions to food, weight struggles, and health concerns.  And it’s clear to me that we don’t hear no thank you to food very often, because I’ve learned the hard way people aren’t used to hearing it.

So, let’s try to do better with this shall we?

It all comes down to being thoughtful.  If you’re on a journey with food or alcohol I’m feeling your stress & I’m there with you.  Luckily I have a great support system.

I hope I’m not over saturating you with all my allergy & food thoughts – the topic has been lit so bright in my life over the past few months I can’t believe I haven’t noticed this problem before.  I feel like I have to say something!

I definitely don’t mean to bring down the mood, which I know talking about eating less does, but I wanted to help us all be more thoughtful.  You can eat & drink whatever works best for you, proudly!   There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that!  If you’re looking for a change, or started a change, I want to help by being a little voice for you.

Shh shh to anyone that’s trying to push food onto people.  Trust me when I say this: we all know your food tastes excellent, we all thank you so much for providing delicious food, & we all would love to indulge in your diverse bar & yummy margaritas… but no thank you.

Thoughtful kisses,

Xx

Ready my Anaphylactic Shock story: here

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