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One of the trickiest parts about transitioning to a more healthful lifestyle is maintaining relationships with others, participating in customary social rituals like meals and parties, while still keeping the balance of eating healthy. Indeed, this can be challenging in terms of keeping up the momentum and keeping things going in terms of your own level of deep cleaning and detox in order to solve your health problems or achieve your health goals.
I will explain using an example. For me personally, I might go several weeks eating very healthy and eating a lot of raw foods and fruits. Whenever I keep this up, I feel like a zillion dollars and I get into a really good rhythm with all the different aspects of my life and I feel strongly that I am making strong progress towards all of my important goals.
Then, I might get a text from an old friend: ‘Hey it’s been forever. We should catch up. Want to grab dinner this week?’ So then we’ll make plans and meet for dinner. It is a glorious reunion, and I will feel good both spiritually and emotionally because this friendship means a lot to me. During the course of the evening I may indulge for the evening food-wise and I might eat things that I wouldn’t have otherwise eaten that day including cooked food like cooked vegetables. I’ll go home, brush my teeth, go to bed and all is well.
The next day I will wake up with a slight food hangover. I will lack the same energy I normally have, and feel a bit sluggish and bloated. I might feel some soreness or a bit of aches in connective tissues of the body or a few weaker points of my body like a knee or shoulder. It seems like whenever I consume acid-forming foods my body can adjust to this acidic chemistry by buffering it with calcium from connective tissue. Overall, I will go about my day, trying to eat healthy, and will function just fine with no severe issues. By the following day, I will feel almost completely back to normal. I will get back on the Healthy Train and regain momentum back and then plow ahead.
Was it worth it? For me, most of the time — yes. Maintaining certain relationships, and starting new ones is quite important for me. It nourishes me on a deeper level that just physically, and so to me if it nourishes me on a soul level then I can sometimes justify going out and cutting it up in terms of having some type of communion with other people who aren’t as concerned with eating healthy as I am.
If you really want to be super healthy, you can always just order a salad if not cooked vegetables. It depends on the restaurant, but most places have some options available on the menu that are healthy or acceptable, or can otherwise accommodate your ‘special needs’ of wanting to eat healthy. Watch out though because there are some restaurants (not to mention dinner parties) that only serve indulgent, unhealthy foods and don’t really have healthy options. It helps to be able to look up the menu ahead of time.
I will say there is something a little odd about eating a vegetable salad, or even cooked vegetables, across the table from somebody who is digging into steak and potatoes. I don’t really mind what somebody else is eating, but I have noticed that this contrast does seem to create a little bit of distance between two people. Food is one of the great bonding experiences that humans have together. And when you eat the same foods or same types of foods, you bond more strongly.
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