R u sure ur going to have that?

So I went out for dinner with my family which we do often when we are all home to spend time with each other. This was a pretty fancy place with dark walls and leather booths and fancy crystal chandeliers and even the waiters working were all dressed in black shirts and ties and all the waitresses were wearing black miniskirts or mini dresses. I expected that everyone working there would be polite and courteous because of the image that this restaurant has created for itself. I didn’t pay attention to what my family ordered, I don’t even remember what anyone ordered (but I would imagine my brothers had some sort of burger) but I had a taco salad with grilled chicken and water to drink as always (I don’t actually drink it) because I get too full having a meal and a drink so I almost never order a drink. So we all ate, talked, argued, and up until now it was the same as any other time I go out with my family for dinner.

After we finished our meals, the waitress asked us if we wanted dessert. Actually, let me repeat exactly what she said. She said: “I know you guys are trying to be healthy but do you want any dessert”? I almost never analyze what people say and think about it and what they meant exactly (like you said what you said and who cares I’m not going to analyze that) but this time I did. In fact I was furious with her. Maybe it was her tone of voice and the slight eye roll, I don’t know, but it just frustrated me. It’s been about 4 months since this happened and I still remember it sometimes. The way she said it “I know you guys are trying to be healthy but do you want any dessert”? Um, no, were not “trying” to be “healthy”, just because someone is eating a salad that means their “trying” to be healthy? And that means they can’t have dessert? Who is she to decide if I’m “trying” to be healthy anyways? Maybe I wasn’t “trying” to be “healthy”, maybe I was “trying” to be “unhealthy”, because I did have plans of having a dessert after my salad (which I did and it was amazing). So, no, you don’t know that we are trying to be healthy!

What does that mean anyway? What does being healthy mean? Having a salad? Not ordering a pop? Not eating dessert? This brings me to a point that I often ponder about which is how people always associate health with food. Fruits and vegetables in particular, they’ve become a symbol of health, I bet if you Google the word health now you’ll see an image of an apple. But people never think about mental health or social surroundings as being contributors to health. Like the waitress that frustrated me, maybe this will negatively impact my health (don’t worry though I’m not THAT sensitive).

To conclude, I think that the definition of health is destroyed, or misunderstood (actually, did people ever understand it from the beginning?) and people should not judge certain issues about health based on false information. As I’m typing this I just remembered, my brothers ordered chicken wings as an appetizer (I didn’t have any, I don’t like them), and the waitress still called them/us healthy after that!