Making Maki is the home of Maki B. It’s where all of life’s parts meet. Figuring out the work-life balance, managing finances, navigating relationships, finding the things that give us joy, appreciating life’s journey and caring for ourselves along the way. Making Maki isn’t about finding any particular thing; it’s about always searching for the best versions of ourselves and making the most of all of life’s lessons and opportunities.
A few days ago, I was talking to some teens about peer pressure and was giving examples of what I thought teenage peer pressure was like these days. I included the regular stuff like drugs, alcohol, neglecting school work, being in places you shouldn’t be, behaving outside of yourself, etc. We talked about verbal and nonverbal peer pressure, from someone flat out asking you over and over to do something, to the subtler occasions when someone says “you’re so weird” and you feel a twinge of guilt. As we were talking, I told them that peer pressure can appear in any situation, at any age – even in adulthood. That caught them by surprise and they asked what peer pressure would look like for adults, so I gave two personal examples.
The first example was about going to parties or events and feeling a bit of peer pressure to participate even when I didn’t feel like it. I shared a few examples like being pressured to go to a Carnival show that wasn’t your vibe and the “oh yeah, oh yeahs” were loud. Then I said I sometimes feel a bit of peer pressure when someone offers me meat and I say no and they keep offering. Suddenly, I had two dozen eyes fixed on me and the question was: “Why would you say no to meat?”
“I would say no because I don’t eat meat,” I said.
The room erupted and I felt like I had announced that I had successfully robbed a bank – let’s be real, we’d all be in shock and awe of anyone who had successfully robbed a bank without being caught.
Once the shock and awe had subsided, the conversation revolved around one question: “What do you eat?”
I honestly didn’t have an answer at first and probably looked a lot like the shrug emoji. I mean, how often do we really sit down and think about the details of our diets? For the most part, once we decide to include or exclude something from our diets, we live with that decision without much afterthought unless we’re looking for change. (In saying diet, I don’t mean weight loss, I mean the original definition of diet which is: the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats.)
So, my diet is that of a pescatarian. I love pretty much all vegetables and beans and I throw in some fish in between. I’m not miserable or unhappy when I make a meal and I don’t think I’m missing anything. I try to balance out my vegetables, proteins, fats, grains, dairy and sugars like most people trying to make health-conscious food choices. Also, I don’t think about other people’s food choices. Most of the people in my life are meat eaters and outside of their general health and wellbeing, I don’t care about their food choices. If they get their protein from chicken, I hope they season it well and cook it all the way through because nobody likes unseasoned food.
Did I mention that I don’t really care about what you eat? I personally don’t believe we should pressure people to live any particular lifestyle. We should just want everyone to be healthy. I have friends who have a deep, deep love for bacon – a love so deep that I think it runs parallel to their love for their partners and kids. While I haven’t been on the bacon train for more than a decade, I understand a love for food. I love raw zucchini – like love. And let’s not talk about how I feel about well-seasoned black beans in any form. The beauty of our lives is that we are free to make the choices that impact our individual lives. We shouldn’t shun people for living lives that don’t exactly mirror ours. The most we can do is try to live our lives parallel to each other with some respect and understanding. To eat or not eat a certain food doesn’t make one better than another person. It’s food for crying out loud. Let’s just eat and be merry.
Oh, and don’t worry, we can all share the barbecue grill. The meat lovers can grill their beef burgers while I’ll grill my veggie patties – I may just have a bamboo leaf between my black bean burgers and the grill. It’s as simple as that. Food is food and joy is joy. Let’s enjoy our food together.
