What is weird anyway?

Today a man I admire, respect and care for like a member of my family said something to me that took me by surprise. He came up to me and said "I'm mad at you." I of course inquired as to why. He informed me that he was concerned about me eating all "this weird stuff" and that I looked fine before but now I'm too skinny.

He had in his hands a bag of bagels from a chain bakery. I had in my hands a kale salad with chicken (and mind you, not just chicken, but super yummy chicken that tasted like the ginger and cinnamon I'd cooked it in. Though sadly, no cherry flavor from the cherries...more cherries next time!) covered with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

Thankfully the first person to pipe up to defend my "weird" food was another coworker who happened to be at my desk. She has yet to jump on the Paleo bandwagon, and frankly I think is probably a bit skeptical and would rather have a bagel than a kale and chicken salad (can't say I would blame her, I totally miss everything bagels). But know what came out of her mouth? It went a little something like this: "Do you know how much bacon she eats? Don't worry, she's NOT starving herself. She's just trying to stay healthy!"

Amen.

I am trying to stay healthy.

I explained to him what a normal food day looks like for me, and that the weight loss was not actually a goal; the end to me feeling like a stomped on pile of poo was the only reason I changed anything. He was somewhat satisfied, but is still of the opinion I'm too skinny. Hell, they say you can't please everyone, and it appears that's true.

A couple hours later, I was in the deep thought room, AKA bathroom and my brain said "Hey now! What's more weird, the salad that you made yourself from a handful of healthy mostly organic ingredients, or the bag full of bagels made from genetically modified grains, fillers, binders, sugars, fake fats and goodness knows what else?" Sadly, I'd have to say that the bagels are what's normal and my salad is indeed weird. It's not normal these days to make your own food. We pay other people to do it. And don't get me wrong, that's all fine and dandy in its own way for the economy, but it's not fine and dandy for our health.

We hand our health over to everyone else. Other people cook for us, we tell someone in a white coat where it hurts and they give us a piece of paper that the pharmacist magically turns into a bottle of pills. We listen to the doctors on TV telling us we need to eat fish one day, then fish is bad because of mercury so eat flax instead. Whole grains are good, and animal fats are bad. We don't stop to look at our lives, our bodies, and think about the reason we need to see the white coats in the first place.

This is what is normal.

But that doesn't mean it's right, and it doesn't mean it's ok. We're sick and fat and tired and cranky. So are our children.

We sleep too little and complain too much about it the next day. We avoid the sun like it's a serial killer on a mission, and then stuff our stomachs full of Vitamin D so our bones don't snap when we stand up. We watch TV instead of talking to our families and friends or going for a walk. We toss back the caffeine like it's manna from Heaven just to get ourselves through another day.

That's all normal. Totally flippin normal.

So, screw normal. I'll continue to eat "weird things" and get healthier, thankyouverymuch.

Oh, and P.S., never tell a woman she's anything other than too beautiful. No matter what you mean by it, it will not turn out well for you. [Mumbles to self...Too skinny my ass! No really, I've got a booty that I still hear about when I'm walking and minding my own business. So there's no way I'm too skinny. But I would like to stop hearing about my booty. It's awesome, I already know that ;)]