Holier than your hamburger

So, one of the things that stops me up from making the decision to eat more healthy, is the "holier than thou" complex that I perceive in a lot of my vegan, vegetarian friends. I dont want none of that.

I'm afraid of the person I'll become if I make that choice. I was watching my boyfriend polish off his possibly fifth or sixth diet coke of the day and had this, "holier than thou" moment and I caught myself. Wait a second. Why am I doing this? Is it some sort of power trip?

It's important that I make sure that's not the reason.

I read Chapter 2 in the Self Healing Cookbook last night and while I enjoyed it, it felt very "holier than thou" disguised in a "go ahead! eat whatever you want" attitude. For instance, all the recipes in the book are dairy free. That's cool. Except she talks about how dairy is okay in small doses. Small doses? What does that mean?!

However, just because she lays out vague guidelines doesn't make her self righteous. In fact, the opposite could easily be argued. The more I think about this, the more I think I'm probably projecting this one. I don't think self righteousness is a prerequisite to eating healthy. But it is something I'd like to notice and not embrace.

As with anything in life, whether it's doing homework, working out, biking to work, or even drinking beer, pre marital sex, watching TV. Any action taken, I experience some type of internal struggle to calibrate myself with society. The outcome can often result in judgement. So be it. As long as I can embrace it for what it is.
So onward.

The second issue at hand is the abstinence vs. occasional treats vs. occasional slip ups. If I really make a commitment to eat more healthy and conscious and base my diet on the recipes in this book and listen to my body more, I have to make this decision.

Do I choose:

A) ABSTINENCE. Go full force. Vow complete abstinence from all the foods the "holy book" says no to.

B) OCCASIONAL TREATS. Everytime I eat a food that falls into the "expanding" or "contracting" stress categories (more on that later), I think of it as a treat. Like a dog gets a bone. Ugh.

C) OCCASIONAL SLIP UP. Aim for abstinence but allow myself to mess up every once in a while. This is the classic vegan line, "Ya, I'm vegan but I occasionaly slip up." (please god, never let eating cheese be considered a slip up in my life, let accidentally forgetting to water the plant, or killing my goldfish by feeding it pot cookies or breaking a window from throwing my friend in it out of jest, but never never eating cheese)

So to decide:

Option C feels full of stress and the whole point of the book is to regulate moods with foods. To stop swinging from extremes of fat to sugar to fat to sugar.
The theory is that these expanding and contracting foods send us on a pendulum of mood and physical extremes.
Eating more within a "middle path" allows us to live a more balanced life.

Option B seems more realistic but its finding the right amount of treats to give myself. That's going to be tough....I'll try it for now. I don't know if I'm going to be able to treat these things as treats. They will become slip ups fast. And I foresee myself spiraling into guilt.

Option A. Hmmm, couldn't do it with sex, don't think its gonna happen with food either.

Happy Friday!
Jesus is eating a hamburger ha!
Now, who's holy?!?