My name is S, and I’m a selective eater.
Always have been. It led to 12 years of vegetarianism—not for ethical reasons, but because I was kinda grossed out by meat. I don’t mean to be difficult, but there are some things I just can’t imagine eating.
Birds are on that list, due to the whole “chicken / cannibalism” thing. So is fish. Shellfish leads to me re-enacting that scene from The Exorcist… you know the one? The projectile vomit one? Yeah, it’s pleasant. And regular fish leads to skin lesions. So my picky list runs from the “ew, gross, no” to the “oh god, kill me now”.
When I’m cooking for myself, obviously, I work around it and it’s no problemo. When I lodge with family, who are all trying hard to please me (yay! thanks to all!!), I feel like a prize idiot. Add to that the fact that I meant to be cutting out added sugar and eating as healthfully as possible, and I could be the worst. houseguest. EVER!
Something’s gotta give if I want to be invited back (and have I mentioned lately that I love Montreal? It’s hard not to!)… but those are tough waters to navigate. As I said yesterday, I’m trying to be more flexible when I can (yet making sure I say no to the juice BEFORE dad pours it…), but that’s mostly coming down to flexibility in the healthy eating ways. Healthy is a choice, where allergic is “I just can’t!”
Life is all about compromise, right? So this is me, making some. And hoping for the best… so I’m eating street food, a veggie panini with hummus, and feeling OK about that… because at least I haven’t annoyed anyone with this meal. 🙂
I’m off to the lake with my Dad tonight to finish the dock and, for the love of everything holy, a project that I’ve been working on for TWO WEEKS longer than planned.
I’ll absent myself for awhile, but ask for a little help as I go: how do you work with your eating restrictions when staying with others?