What works for you, doesn’t necessarily work for me

Ok, so based on one or two of my previous posts, I have a rather complicated relationship with my father. I love him to pieces but the majority of my pet peeves are linked to him, whether directly or indirectly. There’s one in particular that has been pushed at a lot over the past few months. My dad tends to think that whatever he is doing, everyone else needs to do too. He assumes that if something is working for him it will do the same for everyone.

Let’s take a look at the main example of this first. My family uses products from a wellness company: they have environmentally friendly, good-for-you products. Now, the products are really really great and they work very well; however, my dad seems to believe in the products almost religiously and thinks that they can do no wrong and will solve every single problem. If my brother or I use another product that this company has, he goes off on a rant about how we’re poisoning our bodies and blah blah blah. His job is referring customers to the company (which is a whole ‘nother subject/peeve all together that we won’t get into), so I suppose it’s a good thing he believes in the products but I personally think it’s annoying that he thinks everything works perfectly for everyone just because of his beliefs. It is man-made, there needs to be room for fallacy.

The second example is the one that really got to me today. Dad has recently switched to a new diet where rather than eating 3 big meals a day, you have about 6 little ones. Now there’s a couple things about this that get to me. First, let me say that I think this is probably a great diet: it keeps your metabolism going all day which will burn more fat and help you lose weight. Now, the problems that I have: first, my dad seems to use this as an excuse to just eat more times a day. The point behind these meals is they’re supposed to be smaller (aka normal portion size as opposed to American portions) and non-junk foods, if you’re still eating like double the recommended portion size and/or lots of junkie, fatty foods, it’s not going to do anything. Yeah, you have the metabolism always going but you’re also cramming more junk than you should be into your body. While my dad is (finally) starting to substitute fruits and such for chips, he’s still having a good deal more than the recommended serving size. Secondly, once again, my dad assumes that if he’s doing it, everyone needs to be doing it. I am a skinny person, I’m not overweight (in fact I might be under, not really sure haven’t weighed myself recently). I do not need to lose any weight. I could stand to work out and get into shape, but I have no need to go on a diet, especially since I’m already on a semi-strict vegetarian (with exception of fish) lifestyle. I was wearing my corset tonight and I made a comment about how it kept me from being hungry because it put pressure on my stomach. My dad starts going off about how I shouldn’t be starving myself (which I’m not) and that I need to be eating 6 meals a day. Now, I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, it could be just fine for me and actually might help with my Crohn’s disease, but I haven’t done the research on anything yet. I’m also not sure how well it would work with my vegetarianism. Being vegetarian and having Crohn’s disease means that I need to be more careful how I do things, look into what effects there could be, do research before making any dietary changes. My dad hasn’t taken these things into consideration. He just assumes that because he’s on the diet, I need to be following the same routine without figuring out what it could do to my body. Usually my dad is very considerate, not making spicy things to set off my Crohn’s even though he loves spicy, making sure I have vegetarian protein options, asking me what things he can make that I’ll eat, etc. However, there are times when he just doesn’t take the time to do the research.

Anyway… that’s enough of my ranting on the subject. Basically what I’m trying to say is that just because a product or lifestyle change works for you that doesn’t mean it’s going to work for everyone else in the same way. Don’t try to enforce your own choices on other people. Give suggestions, sure but don’t make the assumption that they have to do what you’re doing. Everyone needs to make their own decisions, figure out what works for them.

P.S. There are some things that I do believe are right for everyone. For instance, as a Christian, I believe the only way to Heaven is through the Lord Jesus Christ. Just thought I’d put that disclaimer out there.