The Diet Police [Reasons to keep your weight loss a secret]

[Daki]

Originally Posted by bandit bear

Interestingly enough, my doctor thinks that it was either a genetic mutation at birth and it only now manifested itself, or it was caused by rocket fuel in our drinking water. Yes, rocket fuel.

Whaaaaaat?! It is absolutely insane. I'm no doctor but rocket fuel can't be good for you, haha. You seem to have a really good attitude (And sense of humor) though, I think a lot of people would let it make them bitter. Go you!

[naffy]

LOL everyone's posts on here are so funny I wasn't planning to tell anybody i was working on this either, but i cracked and told a few of my closest friends - kind of wishing i didn't though! i guess some things are better kept to ourselves.

[bandit bear]

Originally Posted by Daki

Whaaaaaat?! It is absolutely insane. I'm no doctor but rocket fuel can't be good for you, haha. You seem to have a really good attitude (And sense of humor) though, I think a lot of people would let it make them bitter. Go you!

I'm originally from southern california and I guess they do a lot of testing out in the desert, and apparently trace amounts get into the Colorado River where we get some of our drinking water from, and so on and so forth. And, what makes it weirder is that a majority of his patients are women in their early 20s and younger, and men in their 50s.

[smashley52683]

I so wish I had seen this thread before going to work today. A few co-workers and myself were standing around talking and the subject came up about dinner. I let it slip that I had started counting calories and my supervisor(who is a marathon runner and super thin) said "Ugh, why are you doing that?" I replied with" Well I need to lose about 100 lbs." She then says "Please don't do that, please don't "DIET" you will make yourself miserable. Just start exercising, I eat all the crap I want, I just make sure I exercise, that's how I lost 60 lbs". I let her know that I wasn't "dieting" that I was making a life style change, she just sorta rolled her eyes. WTF?! How about trying to encourage a person, especially when you, yourself have been overweight in the past. It's ok, it is just going to make me work harder for this.

[ilovemo]

^ OMG that situation is soooo annoying to me. Idk why but people are seriously opposed by healthy eating or something.. but thank god the people im surrounded by will say something like " i wish i had the will power that you do" when im eating something healthy lol.

[BreathingSpace]

Originally Posted by Jelbb

I've also recently decided to get back on the wagon. For the past 9 months or so, I've been enjoying food and hating life. I'm back up to my highest weight, which is a sick twisting feeling in the pit of my stomach just waiting to explode into a sobfest.

ME TOO!!! Now i'm back up to 179.

LOVED your post, you made me smile :-)

~BreathingSpace~

[dizzysoi]

I don't know about the diet police whether I dislike or like them. I work at a school and normally eat lunch with the same five ladies. All of us are on a "diet" so to say. I like them knowing I'm losing weight because it helps me make good choices when it comes to lunch because if I pull out a giant hamburger dripping in grease and tons of fries I know that they WILL say something about it. (Not that this will happen considering I'm a vegetarian)

We also share things we've read or tried and what's currently working for us. You should be grateful that people care enough to want to help you instead of giving you the BS speech about how you're fine the way you are.

And it's true. You don't start burning fat until AFTER 20 minutes. I didn't know this at first and worked out for three months only ever doing 15 minutes here, or 20 minutes there. I didn't lose a single pound, well maybe one. Now I work out three times a week for AT LEAST 45 minutes and I steadily drop about 2 lbs a week.

[Veela]

I had issues with my parents being the diet police when I was growing up. When I hit puberty I got a little on the chunky side. I had previously been very skinny to the point where people thought my parents didn't feed me but I had ferocious appetite.

My sister who is a year older than me hit puberty and stayed skinny and we were both also in dance classes 2-4 hours and all the girls there were also super skinny. I was under the impression that was how I should look at age 13.

My parents knew I was unhappy and began to monitor what I was eating and would make comments "should you be eating that?" "How many cookies are you eating anyway?". This ended up causing me to start binge eating in secret it was incredibly damaging to myself esteem and all around bad news.

I talk about weight loss and give advice to others who ask for it but I try to avoid being critical of others' choices. I don't like being policed and I really don't think it is good for you mentally when people are constantly scrutinizing what you are doing.

I worked with a personal trainer at one point who was really critical of me and it didn't inspire me to try harder. She would say things like "your so pretty why did you let yourself gain weight?" "Why are you so weak?" "You need to stop eating x,y,z because you aren't losing weight". All the weight I lost while working with her I eventually gained back plus more. I ended up changing gyms just to avoid her.

[Nadya]

My Dad tries to police me sometimes. He "jokes" about it but I get the hint... Last time I was home, I noticed that my Mom bought a huge *** box of chocolate one day. I was looking it over, trying to figure out if there might be any chocolate covered coconut pieces (my only weakness with candy...), when my Dad "joked", "Stay out of that!" I ignored him and kept looking. "Stay out of that!" Still ignoring him... "Hey, did you hear me? You aren't supposed to eat that junk, stay out of it!"

*shakes fist*


While I'm on the topic...stop buying so much damn junk food, Mom!

[xMissTinax]

To me, it depends on how it's brought up.

If, for example, I go to the fridge and get a sweet or something kind of high in calories, my husband (who is aware that I'm trying to lose weight & is trying to help me stay motivated) will kind of give me a look like, "Are you sure you want to eat that?" And if tell him that it's within my calorie allowance or that it's a treat, he drops it. But that sort of situation only happens if he notices that I've had several high calorie things throughout the day or several times throughout the week and he doesn't badger me about it. The way he looks at it is it ultimately my choice what I put in my mouth and he's just trying to get me to stop and think for a second, before I end up in a situation where I've eaten something I regret. I don't take offense to it and appreciate him being supportive.

On the other hand, my in-laws are a nightmare when it comes to being the diet police. When he still lived with his family when we were much younger and I would stay the weekend, I tried to keep my dieting a secret at all costs because of the way they are, particularly his mother. If I went to make myself a sandwich or something, she would stand there and watch me make it, pretending to be interested in something else. And then when I would pick up the plate to go sit down, she'd chime in, "You know, you really shouldn't be eating that. That's really not good for you. You'd be better of eating this instead.."

You'd think I had a grabbed a tub of butter out of the refrigerator and a spoon and just starting digging in or something..

Ironically, she's the type that she tries to feed people "out of love" (in huge portions I might add) and practically trying to force feed me second and thirds at the dinner table, even after I politely declined. In the beginning, I didn't want to make her mad so I would accept the offer and have a little bit more, even if I was stuffed. But as I saw what it was doing to my body and hurting me, not helping, I didn't care and would stand my ground and just tell her, "I might get some more later, but thanks.." Needless to say, since my husband and I got married and he moved out, our stomachs have shrunk considerably to the point that we can't even finish our plates when we go to visit her.

Or one day, I hadn't had a treat in several weeks and had, had my eye on a piece of my husband's birthday cake. Instead of driving myself up the wall, I quickly figured up my calories for the day and made sure I had some wiggle room, and cut a tiny piece. I passed his sister in the hallway, who is younger than me, and she looked at the cake and yelled out, "I hope that's not for you!"

I said it was, and that I was having a treat and everything in moderation. She proceeded to give me a big long lecture on how to lose weight, and why I shouldn't be eating that, and what I'm doing wrong. Here was a girl, still in her late teen years, trying to tell me how to lose weight when I have more experience in losing weight and exercise in my pinky finger than she does in her whole body. I politely told her that I know how to diet and know my body better than anyone else and that if I want to have a tiny piece of cake every now and then, I'm going to have a tiny piece of cake and left it at that.

When I was on Jenny Craig, my husband and in-laws jokingly referred to my JC meals as "rabbit food," which I found humorous but it got very irritating when the in-laws would question why I didn't eat one of the JC meals a couple times when I was supposed to. Little did they know, I had already counted up the calories and portion size for the exchange before I chose to eat it and my consultant was fine with it, and I was still losing weight.

I don't necessarily mind my closest friends that have struggled with their own weights giving me tips and sharing their own experiences, but for people who have no idea what my plan is and how I'm going about it, to butt in, especially in front of other people, doesn't sit well with me at all.

[Jelbb]

Bah. All of your stories are so great!

I had a bizarro reverse situation this morning. Opted to go for a run with a friend's sister when we crashed the night at her place and she was going to a learn-to-run this morning.

After the run, which I am proud to say was easy for me, though harder for others (yay, I'm not the most out of shape person in existence, though I think I was getting there!), the girls took me to McDonalds. I'd already had a bowl of Kashii cereal that morning, and therefore got fruit in yogurt. In response, they rolled their eyes, and shook their heads, and continuously asked me in a mocking tone how my yogurt was, while shoveling post-run mcmuffins in their faces....!


Dizzy:
I get what the idea behind at least 20 minutes of exercise is... It's just a little silly to say that 20 minute periods of exercise don't help you lose weight. Burning fat, or burning calories, I'm depleting energy. If I deplete calories, rather than burning fat, I'll eventually create a deficit that will result in my body utilizing my fat stores for energy. Same end result.
I'm not denying that 45 minutes won't burn more fat/calories... Just refuting that shorter periods aren't at all beneficial.

My source, and a brief explanation about the 20 minute myth:
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/conten...t-burning.html

[gogosj]

Jelbb, I have gone through the same experience where I've eaten w/friends and have gotten scoffed at by eating a chicken salad while they munched on their burgers. Yes, I would prefer to eat the burger but if I'm trying to lose weight, the obvious choice would be to eat the nutritious salad with grilled chicken. I don't know why people can't be more supportive of their friends trying to get healthy :-/

[Nadya]

Originally Posted by Jelbb

After the run, which I am proud to say was easy for me, though harder for others (yay, I'm not the most out of shape person in existence, though I think I was getting there!), the girls took me to McDonalds. I'd already had a bowl of Kashii cereal that morning, and therefore got fruit in yogurt. In response, they rolled their eyes, and shook their heads, and continuously asked me in a mocking tone how my yogurt was, while shoveling post-run mcmuffins in their faces....!

Annoying! I had a similar reverse situation last quarter with a "friend" of mine. I had just decided to try running for a change and only made the decision to do so after I had already spent 10+ minutes walking. By the time I decided to run the rest of the way to a mile, it was too late to make a good time and took over 16 minutes to complete. Said "friend" asked me how long it took me at dinnertime the next day and when I told him he said, "Ouch, I could run a mile in 10 minutes." I suggested that he get his *** on the treadmill and show me but he came up with some excuse about how this girl was going to be in the pool next door at the same time and he didn't want to run into her somehow. Pfft...

We walked back to my room with our stuff and I seem to remember him picking at me for eating "rabbit food"...said the chubbs eating a big sub and greasy homemade chips. Idiot!

I still doubt that he could beat me even with my time being a pathetic 13.5 minutes...

Originally Posted by gogosj

Jelbb, I have gone through the same experience where I've eaten w/friends and have gotten scoffed at by eating a chicken salad while they munched on their burgers. Yes, I would prefer to eat the burger but if I'm trying to lose weight, the obvious choice would be to eat the nutritious salad with grilled chicken. I don't know why people can't be more supportive of their friends trying to get healthy :-/

It's easier to put someone down than it is to pick yourself up.

[LuciMarie]

The only people that know about my weight loss are my mum and best friend.
Mum is also trying to lose weight and so is the best friend (Marena). Marena is basically my champion because she and I despise all people and have a similar body type so we understand each other. She's lost more weight than I have, but she has also been much more active about it. We cheer each other on and she's the only one who understand when I complain about my clothes being in that awkward stage now (though she was grumpy at first )

I know I made the mistake of mentioning about how one of my dresses was too big (I had bought it toward the end of the summer intending to use it, but didn't really think ahead) and received death glares. Funnily enough these were from two girls who are an easy 80lbs lighter than me (if not more).
I just hate the awkward stage! I don't want to go buy new clothes and let's face it we all have that one sweater we will mourn not being able to wear. (Though that sweater is now showing off the re-emergence of my clavicle )