Eating out these days is difficult for me. While I didn’t have to adjust my diet like my husband had to, we weren’t going to eat two different meals all the time. I adjusted gradually, he adjusted immediately.
But that leaves me feeling really stuck all the time. So many social functions surround themselves on food.
My friends are all cool with it & respect that I can’t eat some things anymore.
Work don’t really get it. I do my best to answer questions but people glaze over pretty quickly & ignore me fairly fast.
Meeting new people or having business meetings is also hard. Most of these things are done over coffee (which I don’t drink) or causal food (most of which will make me sick).
While restaurants are getting more tolerable of food – allergies, vegetarians, even vegans – no one caters to a standard healthy diet.
It’s also hard to explain what I can & can’t eat. The closest I can explain is that I eat unprocessed food. And not much food. I’m not faking it or on a diet when I say I can’t eat anymore or I can’t eat that food.
People also question me (aka give me disbeleiving looks) because I haven’t lost weight – that’s because I have sucked at exercise in recent years, not because I haven’t eaten well. Long story.
I don’t know what to put when I rely to people/invitations about my food needs. Can I reply with “vegetables and whole grains”?
Changes in life sometimes just don’t suit society…
Surely that should be an ok answer! Otherwise you just picked and change things on a menu.
Pick & choose is how I’ve gotten by so far. It just depends if the place is normal (aka flexible) or too set in their ways (no substitutions).