Stop interjecting yourself in my diet!

[Bronzebow]

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I'm with this group of friends and acquaintances that have a standing dinner party. We rotate on who is going to bring food, and for the most part people cook things that everyone likes. No problem there.

I've adopted a specific diet that excludes a lot of carbohydrates. Now, it's not a very big deal in practice; egg noodles would be cooked on the side of a soup, for example, so that I can eat the soup and others can scoop noodles to their own taste. I won't take a corn bread side, but I'll take some of the broccoli or mushroom stir fry. When it's my turn, I even bring foods and desserts that I wouldn't even be able to eat. I don't want to feel like I'm "subjecting" others to my self-imposed limitations. Everyone's happy!
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One particular individual likes to talk. He's always right, you see. Now, he's convinced that my diet is extremely unhealthy and lets me know. Every. Single. Time. This man is over 300lbs, almost stationary, and diabetic. And you want to give me dietary advice?

“Oh, well I guess I could make my favorite casserole next week...but Bronze can't eat it.” Then shooting a canary-eating grin my way.

“WHEN you decide to drop this little...exercise of yours, I'm going to make you some of my cheese noodles.” The tone made me cringe, like he was talking to a child.

“My doctor says that you *need* to eat sugar. Your brain runs on six grams a day!” Said on his second heaving helping of chocolate cake, when I chose to pass on some myself.

I get why loved ones can be concerned about this. A lot of my changes fly in the face of more traditional dietary advice. Heck, even “me” of two years ago would probably be spit-taking some of the things I don't eat now. But I do it under the watchful eye of a good doctor, and my numbers have done nothing but improve since I've been making these changes. So, I’ll take my feeling-good self, my doctor, my test results, and my almost triple digit weight loss, Mr. Acquaintance. You can keep…whatever it is you’re doing to yourself over there.

I bend over backwards to make sure that I'm not inconveniencing anyone, or at least as little as possible. I'm perfectly happy with a little meat and some veggies. I'm not hard to cook for, and I've never had anyone else complain like this man does. It's starting to suck the fun out of the whole night.

[crashhelmet]

I'd fire back at him.

"Unlike you, I'm concerned about my health"

or be educational

"Vegetables are carbs. I get the necessary energy that my body and brain needs from eating vegetables like broccoli and mushrooms."

Approximately 1/2 cup of broccoli has a single gram of sugar. Portabella mushrooms are about the same.

So your 1 meal with its side of broccoli and mushrooms is a good portion of your "needed" sugar intake for the day. Not to mention what else you might be getting from your other foods.

[BlaqueKatt]

So your 1 meal with its side of broccoli and mushrooms is a good portion of your "needed" sugar intake for the day. Not to mention what else you might be getting from your other foods.

not to mention, ones body will break down stored carbs(fat), back into their original components with no real issue.

I'd say something to the effect of "I wasn't aware, you graduated medical school recently." When he says he hasn't, "well the only medical/health advice I take is from my physician, who has, and so far it's working great"

[Rageaholic]

not to mention, ones body will break down stored carbs(fat), back into their original components with no real issue.

I'd say something to the effect of "I wasn't aware, you graduated medical school recently." When he says he hasn't, "well the only medical/health advice I take is from my physician, who has, and so far it's working great"

Ha, I love that. I gotta remember that for when I'm dealing with so called experts.

[Bronzebow]

not to mention, ones body will break down stored carbs(fat), back into their original components with no real issue.

I'd say something to the effect of "I wasn't aware, you graduated medical school recently." When he says he hasn't, "well the only medical/health advice I take is from my physician, who has, and so far it's working great"

Zing! I'm not fast on my feet with comebacks, so this is golden. I know this would start a rant about "years of experience" and that would make it all the more awesome! I'm in my late twenties, and this guy's in his early fifties, so any conversation we get into eventually turns into how sucky "my" generation is. It's sort of like a Godwin law, except that it's kinda fun to trigger sometimes.

Some people just have to be right, no matter what.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

If he goes into the whole "YEARS OF EXPERIENCE" thing, just ask him how much weight he's lost in the past (insert however much time you've been on the diet). When he inevitably says "none", you can just smile and say, "Oh. Well then I guess your diet is amazing at maintaining weight, but I'm trying to lose some to get into a more healthy range. I feel amazing!"

I think he's just jealous of the fact that you have enough discipline and self control to follow the diet and get into a more healthy mode and he OBVIOUSLY doesn't.

I mean, I don't either have the self control to avoid some junk foods, but that's my decision. I'm not about to try to belittle anyone to eat what I eat to make myself feel better about my life choices.

[Pixilated]

Or you could find a massive tome about nutrients and diets, and hand it to him and tell him once he's read it through, you'll be happy to discuss the matter further with him.

But that's probably more trouble than he's worth, LOL.

[Lyse]

Rarely is there such a clear case of "enough knowledge to be dangerous". Yes, the brain needs glucose to function. Glucose - not "sugar". Someone is obviously either not paying attention to his diabetic instruction, or he has a piss poor medical team.

I'm betting on the first one.

[blas87]

Oh, don't get me started.

I used to work with an entire department of overweight/obese women, and they had the nerve to criticize what I ate on my breaks.

Thanks for the health advice, why don't you start taking it yourself? How about instead of getting on my case about a footlong sub, you quit going through a 2 liter of soda a night?

Oh, and just for more lemon in the wounds:

To everyone (esp at work) who gives me shit for working out as much as I do....although I'm not generally happy with how I look.....my near daily exercise since middle school years has resulted in me having very low cholesterol, quite a healthy heart and lungs despite being a smoker.....oh, and by the way.....the exercise I do constantly, is how I am able to work so many 12 hour shifts and only feel tired and a little pain in the feet, but no back/shoulder/lower back/arm pain that all the rest of you feel. My body spending nearly every day being stretched and moved around, and with the moderate type of exercise I do, my body is able to handle the physical labor job I do, and the standing for as long as I do.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

I used to work with an entire department of overweight/obese women, and they had the nerve to criticize what I ate on my breaks.

GAWD! I know what that's like. I got bitched at for what I ate and how much.

Funny thing? While I'm a bit overweight and am working on shedding the spare tire, I had a full course of blood work done.

The only two things outside the normal, healthy range were my Vitamin D levels (doctor calls me the pastiest of white boys and is certain that I live under a rock) and my HDL or "Good" Cholesterol. It too was low.

The Bad cholesterol was well within healthy levels...I just need to eat more fish or take fish oil pills.

So since these people are nurses that have joined the IT staff for working on the Electronic Medical Records and charting software I took them a copy of my labs and asked them "So is my footlong Cold Cut sub from Subway REALLY that devastating? or are you jealous that I can eat more than a bowl of yogurt and not freak out?"

That shut them up pretty quick.

[mikoyan29]

A couple of months ago, I started to watch what I was eating (namely just calories, not carbs or anything like that). I was actually surprised at how many calories I was taking in by drinking pop in the quantities that I do. I haven't cut it out of my diet completely, but I've cut it down considerably. It was an eye opener though because there would be days when I'd take in almost 1000 calories more than I should. But I'm looking at this as a long term thing...I didn't put the weight on overnight and I'm not going to take it off overnight. I guess my next step is to actually start eating healthier and when it gets warm out, walking every night.

[guywithashovel]

I generally think it's best to keep your diet under your hat as much as possible. Of course, if you're part of a standing dinner party, that can be very hard if not impossible to do.

I used to work with someone who was like this, and I've posted about her before. She had a really big peeve about soda. One time, she gave me this look of sheer horror when I opened a can of Mountain Dew. Whenever she started up about how healthy she was because she never drank soda, I reminded her that she drank alcohol on a regular basis (which she did). She'd also flip out if anyone ate McDonald's, but she had no qualms about digging into a pizza from the likes of Pizza Hut or any other similar place, which was funny, since that pizza probably had every bit as much fat and calories as anything from McD's. I guess health food watchdogs are selective about how healthy their own diets are.

That said, I do make an effort to eat healthy and exercise, but at the same time, a doughnut or a soda or a fast food burger every now and then is not going to kill anyone. Some people just can't comprehend moderation.

[Bronzebow]

I generally think it's best to keep your diet under your hat as much as possible. Of course, if you're part of a standing dinner party, that can be very hard if not impossible to do.

Oh yeah, I agree with this completely. It's almost like politics and religion. Don't bring it up in polite conversation... heh.


mikoyan29, that's kind of how I think of it too. I've found that just getting into good habit is almost all you need (though admittedly the hardest part). After that, the rest just sort of happens on its own. My biggest issue is coffee now. Hopelessly addicted! But yeah, no need to rush it. That would just frustrate too much.

[Ladeeda]

The problem is that one's diet is what one eats. And unless you eat in a closed office all alone, people are going to see what you're eating. And in many cases, comment on it.

Personally, I needed to start eating MORE. For the longest time I would barely clear 1000 calories in a day, and I thought I was overeating, since I never lost any weight.

Yeah, fook that.

Now I don't worry too much about how many calories I'm putting away. I keep fast food down to once a week if at all, have mostly stopped drinking soda except at said fast food places, and have not given up alcohol at all.

Helps that I've worked up to jogging 2 miles straight through. My goal is 3.

[Giggle Goose]

Oh, don't you just love armchair experts? I never told anyone when I was trying to eat healthier, but I would still get snide comments at work about how "healthy" I was eating. Then when I would indulge every once in a while, I'd get "That's not on your diet!" Um, excuse me, what "diet" did I mention here? No one has to live with my body but me, I am in pretty good health, and my habits are not negatively affecting anyone else's life.

I think that's really cool that you bring things for people that don't follow the same dietary guidelines as you. It's very considerate and it shows that you don't expect everyone else to alter their lives because you are on an eating plan. It sounds to me that this other person is jealous of your success and has to give unwanted "advice" to give him some validation about his own choices. Kudos on your weight loss and improved health!

And yes, when I started to lose weight, people asked what my "secret" was.