by lisa | 21 September 2014 14:42
I went to my first ever Meet Up event the other day. It’s definitely out of my comfort zone to get together with people I don’t know, but it’s usually outside your comfort zone where personal growth and good things happen.
I’ve written about friendship and how important it is in a guest post for Paleo Parents (read it here, awesome recipe included), so it was time for me to walk the walk if I’m going to talk the talk. Making new friends isn’t always easy in a foreign country, so you have to grab every opportunity that comes along to meet new people.
I also worry a little about going to events where people will know that I’m a paleo blogger. I’ve seen some pretty horrible comments floating around out there in the paleo community towards bloggers that people feel don’t live up to some ideal standard— “You aren’t a bikini model, are you sure you eat paleo and can be trusted as a reliable blogger??” I’m always afraid people will expect me to be somehow better than what I am in reality and that they’ll be disappointed when they meet the real me. Does that make sense? Ha! That’s usually why I drag my husband along to these sorts of things. I may not look exactly like a paleo poster child, but he sure does 🙂 And yes, it irritates the heck out me that I eat just like he does and will never, ever have abs like that 😉
So, the meet up was a great success and I met some really, really nice people. And some incredibly cute paleo babies! We pretty much covered lots of different age groups. Chris and I (old, with a grown daughter), young families with babies, a family with 3 school age children and a young single guy from Poland (single ladies—he was adorable, nice and intelligent—you should have been there!).
It was interesting to hear what brought people from all different backgrounds to the same paleo point in their lives. It was great that we also found lots of other things to talk about besides food. I used to feel a real need to talk about my paleo experience and “talk food” all the time when I was first starting on this journey many years ago. Now though, it’s just how I eat and live and I really don’t think about it or talk about it all that much. Except with my friend Julie…we always talk about food 🙂 !
We had some delicious food to go along with our easy flowing conversations. There was a lovely quiche that everybody thought was yummy, a delicious and fresh cucumber/bell pepper sort of salad, veggies and guacamole, I brought this salad and some Autumn Bark, there were some muffins that I somehow didn’t get around to trying and there was a delicious lemony cakey thing made with plantains. We all brought our own choice of meat for the grill. There was wine provided by our gracious hosts, but we were all so busy talking that we never even actually got around to opening it. I only had my phone camera and was too busy talking to get many photos. Yeah, I’m not so good at this blogging thing…
So, My People, the moral of my long story is: Take a risk. Find (and take) opportunities to meet new people or join new groups. You might just meet some fabulous people, learn something new or have a lot of fun. You’ll never know unless you get out there and do it. If you are in the Zürich area, I hope I’ll get the chance to meet you at a future pot luck gathering 😉
Special thanks to Melissa and Stan for organizing the Meet Up 🙂
Source URL: https://swisspaleo.ch/a-paleo-pot-luck-meet-up/
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