Operation Be More Me: Or, Post The Damn Potato

So yesterday evening, I shared a photo on my Instagram of our at home date night dinner. One that I wouldn’t usually post because – gasp! – there was a POTATO in it! Yes! A totally non AIP tuber! Now before you all freak out over potential foodie fraud, that’s not the direction this is going. But, as I said, I wouldn’t usually share a photo of something that wasn’t AIP, since I usually assume that the people who follow me on social media or here on the blog chiefly do so for the AIP inspiration.

But this photo and the little story that I tapped out speedily before my steak coma set in did have a relevance to my AIP experience, nightshades notwithstanding. So here’s what I posted:

“Date night! Because, steak ? Mr M eats all AIP with me at home 99% of the time… not because he needs to, but just because it makes my life easier.
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However, he came home from a rare solo grocery store trip looking particularly shifty the other day, so I wondered what little surprise I’d find in those bags… eventually he pulled out something from a bag with all the glee of a toddler who’s just gotten away with something and held aloft this giant potato as though it were a new member of the pride ?
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And so, I baked him a potato the size of my face as part of our steak dinner. He was a very, very happy man because (a) Giant Potato of Yayness and (b) he forgoes potatoes usually not because they affect him (they don’t) but because it’s easier for me if he doesn’t need separate foods. And (c) let’s face it: baked potatoes are delicious.
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I found myself reflecting on how differently this scenario would have turned out a few years ago. He’s a grown man and I let him make his own dietary decisions, but he’s learned so much about what works for him, too, as I’ve travelled my own healing journey. A few years ago, his grocery store surprise would have been processed food and candy… now it’s a potato ? So don’t underestimate how much you’re teaching the people around you, too! ??”

If I hadn’t posted this non AIP food to my feed, I would never have passed on that cool little lesson: that the people around us are listening, even if we’re only speaking through our actions, passion and experiences. You might be the single person in your home on a healing diet, but you’re definitely not the only person who might be learning from it. How cool is that? Which made me realize something for myself: a lesson from the lesson, if you will! I think too much. I hesitate too much. I agonize over words here on the blog (and social media) when they used to be something I took comfort in and enjoyed exploring. Writing that little IG post was totally liberating because it reminded me how fun it is to BE MYSELF. You know, when I stop worrying about what people will think. Of me, of my food, of my choices. (That negative internal voice of mine needs a punch in the face).

I looked back at that little post and finally saw myself reflected in my social media, sans selfie. I’m lighthearted, irreverent and use too many emojis. I speak sarcasm as a second language, but cry over Disney movies that I use as similes. I fully appreciate a good word-nerd-session and have been described by friends as a “human word of the day calendar” and think that’s kind of cool. I listen to ridiculous things like video game soundtracks played on strings. I despise smoothie bowls, no matter how “on trend” they are (were? who knows!). Don’t even get me started on detoxes, we’ll be here hours.

I show my love through the food I share with the people around me, whether in person or on this blog. I will drop anything for a friend, to the point of staging an international rescue. Giving up my obnoxious hair color(s) and piercings ain’t ever going to happen. And I’m a really lucky bitch because I get to share my life with someone who puts up with the fact that helping himself to something from the fridge is basically a game of marital roulette and who genuinely gets excited when I bake him a goddamn potato. (For the record: he loses if I needed that shrimp / dip / meatball for a photo or post). Life is good. I’m a little nutsy. And I should share that more often. With myself, with my friends and with the people who are crazy or kind enough to follow me here. Because without you guys, I’d be talking to myself, anyways.