Let's beat the different drummer

Have you ever gone off the beaten path in life?  Have you ever gone against conventional wisdom?  I grew up somewhat offbeat in a way.  We didn’t always do what everyone else was doing, and for the most part that’s pretty much ok. 

Now it’s my turn.  I’m good with being offbeat myself.  I breastfed my kids all past 1 year, made our own baby food, cloth diapered the younger two.  I stay home with the kids, we home school, use hand-me-downs, and avoid a lot of commercialism.  It seems pretty normal to me, but it isn’t when you compare us to mainstream families.  So it should really be no surprise when my husband and I decided to change our way of eating.  My oldest sister had suggested the South Beach diet, but it seemed too hard--too organized for me.  I liked the idea, but lacked the motivation and follow through.

In playing a game of “follow the link” one day, I ended up on Mark’s Daily Apple.  I read a lot of what he had to say, and it made sense to me.  Grains and gluten are bad for you.  “White” foods like potatoes and rice aren’t good for you.  Stop eating these things and see what happens.  What happened for us is that we started to feel better.  There are 10 basic “laws” or ideas that Mark Sisson espouses that will help you live better.  I can dig that.  They make sense.

But this idea is so foreign to others that they can’t help but be all out jerks about it.  Well, they could help themselves if they wanted to, but I suspect it’s more fun to be a jerk than it is to just say, “hey, good for you, I’ll buy my own bread.”  Or “Oh, you forgot the potatoes?  No big deal since you cooked dinner for 20 other people while I sat on my butt and did nothing.” 

This, and my last post about the itsy-bitsy spider bring me to the conclusion that people will allow you to follow your own drummer only when they can set the beat.  Otherwise, you will be treated poorly for making a decision that is healthful for yourself and your family.  I don’t know if it’s a guilt thing or if its an asshole thing.  It is something though.  It is being mean and cutting others down to make yourself feel better.  It is being small and acting like the ill-mannered troll that lives under a bridge, but with an ax to grind because someone went against the crap that you can’t say you believe in, but you can’t let go of.  It is believing that it is a personal affront if someone does something different and right for themselves and their family.