You can be proud of being a disappointment for other because you changed

A few weeks ago I was talking with a group of colleagues from my office, it happened a few minutes before lunch time.

My boss had asked for lunch to be taken to his office to eat there. When his assistant went through the meal, several began to comment on how good it looked, but I did not say anything.

The plate contained red meat, potato chips and battered vegetables, and I was going to drink canned soda.

One of them, with whom I have excellent relationship, commented: She does not understand what we are talking about; she does not see that plate as we see it. The others, who are not so close to me, asked what he meant by that comment and he answered without going into many details that I ate in a very strange way.

Everyone found the answer he gave to them very funny and they started asking me what it meant to eat “in a very strange way”.

Then I began to explain to them briefly the things that I did not eat, such as: dairy products, red meats or gluten. They started asking more things so I could explain them in more detail; then I

Then I began to briefly explain to them the things I did not eat, such as: dairy, highly processed foods, some types of meat or gluten. They started asking more things so I could explain them in more detail. Then I explained that I do not eat any type of dairy, Greek yogurt or skim milk, I avoid processed food, white sugar, not like any food that has gluten, my only animal protein are chicken, eggs and fish, just sprouted grains, no red meat, only healthy fats, no sugary drinks, and I eat non-traditional foods such as tofu, quinoa, chia, seeds, kale, stevia or hemp seeds or sunflower seeds.

Their expensive expressions were impressive, they seemed very surprised and did not understand well what I was talking about. My colleague taking advantage of the fun of this situation kept joking and telling them that things with me were even worse; because she do not drink alcohol, she do not go out, she wakes up very early, she do yoga and she is that horrible thing “almost vegan”.

One comments that he has a friend who is just as “weirdo as you”, that they studied together in college and that she was the opposite of what she is now. That she drank a lot of alcohol, went out for a night out several nights a week, did not do any kind of physical exercise and ate a lot of junk food.

I said: Well, that was me four years ago!

My colleagues are very different from me, let’s say that they prefer to be less careful with their health and their impact on the world, they enjoy things different from the ones I enjoy at this stage of my life. I do not want to criticize them, it is possible that they are much happier than me, besides that was me a while ago.

They listened to me in detail, one of them expressed: You are a disappointment! After analyzing themselves, most use exactly the same expression.

I think everyone expected a tough response, my character is strong and I can respond in that way, but I did not, my response with a smile on my face was: Thank you!

Yes, it was my honest answer.

It made me feel very good that they told me that, I think it was the way to realize that my habits and my attitudes have changed.

I think we can all be proud to be a disappointment to other people, I think we should feel comfortable and happy to have become weirdos.

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