I am certainly not a fan of turtle dude, but that isn’t a nice thing to say and isn’t in line with the Beehaw philosophy. He doesn’t have the same values as a lot of us, but everyone has friends and family that would miss them and be sad if they died. Instead of wishing bad on people, let’s try to focus on positive change. He should retire…a lot of them should retire. What incentives do they have for NOT retiring? Money? What else? What incentives do they have TO retire? How do we make retiring look more inviting to them?

I hate that this is a valid question…

This looks amazing, I will have to try this recipe. Thank you for sharing!

If you are looking to try another recipe, one of my current favorites from The Woks of Life is https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/sesame-crusted-tofu-with-spicy-dipping-sauce-recipe

I wish this was limited to just people on the internet…The one I always have trouble with is when I go to a restaurant and the server asks if my dietary restrictions are for an allergy or preference. My brain always ends up freezing because neither answer is really true. It’s not an allergy, I’m not going to die if I eat the foods (just feel really awful for multiple days), and it is certainly not a preference (food is awesome!). I feel like no matter which way I respond I’d be lying to the person, and my brain struggles with that and I just end up staring up at the person in confusion.

From discussing it with other people, I think a lot of the fad diets over the years have made it harder for people to realize that there are non-allergy reasons for your doctor to tell you you can’t eat things. People just assume that you are doing it on purpose, to lose weight, to fit in, etc. Because the default is Insert Fad Diet Here, people think we are stubborn and feel it is ok to make us feel bad about it. It’s not right either way, more power to someone who can willing give up all the foods I gave up kicking and screaming but still.

From an external perspective, I think it is about explaining the WHY to people. That way it expands their internal list of reasons, and they might go into their next encounter with more thoughtfulness. With that said, some people are who they are. You can ignore them or you can avoid them, but definitely don’t let them get you down. As you said, you tried that in this case and the person didn’t listen.

Which brings me to the internal perspective, you CAN eat chicken, green beans, and potatoes. Instead of focusing on all the things you can’t eat, celebrate the things you can eat. There are a million and a half ways you can cook a potato. Chicken? Just about every cuisine has a solid chicken recipe, and its good any way you cook it (grilled, baked, poached, slow cooker).

It is like playing a video game on a different difficulty setting, the rules don’t end up being quite the same. What is fine for someone on Easy, doesn’t work for you on Hard mode. Your body tells you to eat chicken? Eat chicken. Feel the desire to give back to the planet? There are lots of options, you don’t have to pick the same one as others. What can you do instead? Can you volunteer at an animal shelter, can you compost?