Well, needless to say, in the business I am in it's easy to confirm I am the "fat friend," and the "oh so talented friend," but most definitely not the healthy friend. Since I have begun my weight loss journey I have set aside time to really engage and relate to my skinny friends, talking to them about their habits. I'm sure this may have been discussed previously somewhere down the line, but I figured it'd be fun to pass on the information.
25 year old Best Friend / Old Roommate / Model - 120 lbs
She and I have a love hate relationship when we lived together. She would bring home all the crap and I would be at the gym every day with my trainer, eating healthy, and do my best to ignore the foods she snacked on at home. All I saw was her bring home McDonalds and eat crap that it would drive me crazy!
What I didn't notice until we had a 3 hours conversation was this:
She eats a lot of protein - salmon being one of her favorite meats. She'd rather eat salmon rather than anything else!
If she gets fast food she would never eat all of it. She'd eat half her burger and a few fries and have enough discipline just to throw it away. When we would go out she would never eat all of her food and she would never ask for a to-go box. Personally, I would have cringed at the idea of not getting something to-go if I had not finished my plate. I love finishing my good - especially pasta dishes. She would always get the salmon (I recall this now) and eat all the meat, but ignore the sides.
Cucumbers doused in vinegar was here favorite snack, as well as sliced tomatoes. I remember eating this with her - so freakin' good.
She worked at her father's restaurant. She was always on her feet, always on the go, and always moving. Now she lives in Hawaii with her boyfriend and prefers to walk to work rather than drive.
She always keeps a box of oreos around, but when she's feeling a chocolate craving she grabs one oreo instead of eating the whole box. This takes a lot of discipline that I am not ready for yet.
32 Year Old Skinny Friend / Actress (You'll see her in the upcoming Hunger Games!) / Model
She goes to the gym in the morning or afternoon - depending on when she feels it's most happening. It's become a routine and a lifestyle preference. What's most important is she always keeps a gym bag with a change of clothes, gym shoes, and products in her car.
She very active in the community. Basically she believes an active heart (giving back to the community) is an active body, which makes her feel better physically, mentally, and emotionally.
She says no to food. This past Saturday we were dong a community activity together and she declined eating what was cooked in preference of what she could cook at home once we were done with the event. When she and I have gone out together she never finishes her food nor does she get a to-go box.
49 Years Old / My Mom
My mom can run circles around me! She didn't start her healthy lifestyle changes until I was about 15 or 16, when my lifestyle had pretty much been set.
Yoga. Yoga. Yoga. Ah, my mom's bod is fabulous because she does yoga! She also cycles, runs, and swims. Like I said, she does circles around me. She signs up for events in advance, drops the money for it, so she has motivation to train. Some of these events are 5ks, Bike Tours (not races all the time mind you), and half marathons if she's feeling up to it.
Shakes/Smoothies/Crystal Light - Yep, she prefers these above everything else but her Diet Coke that she still gets from Sonic Happy Hour. When she does go to Sonic or McDonalds she always prefers the grilled stuff to the fried. She never gets or finishes fries.
26 years old / Glamour Model
www themermaidlife com
I have kept up with her blog for a while now and she talks about her lifestyle. It's pretty great and motivational.
I will add more as I continue to interview and ask.
This is so interesting!! I was actually thinking about this with my sister the other day, because she's very slim, and I always thought I ate a lot better than her but when I started keeping track, I understood!! She will order a chocolate brownie and hot sweet drink, and I would scoff and have a bowl of pasta or some sandwiches, thinking I was being healthy, but comparatively I was eating so so much more! It's about control like you said, my sister could just eat half the brownie but I could happily eat a whole loaf of bread.
Actually, it's helped me a lot to see that you can be slim and still have brownies every now and then!! It's about quantity just as much as quality.
Also I follow Rosie from thelondoner, she says a lot of similar stuff on her blog!! She is very slim but adores food, and always posts lifestyle tips about eating whatever you want a little bit of the time, and healthily the rest of the time.
If she gets fast food she would never eat all of it. She'd eat half her burger and a few fries and have enough discipline just to throw it away. When we would go out she would never eat all of her food and she would never ask for a to-go box. Personally, I would have cringed at the idea of not getting something to-go if I had not finished my plate. I love finishing my good - especially pasta dishes. She would always get the salmon (I recall this now) and eat all the meat, but ignore the sides.
My skinny friends do this too I have noticed. I tried it last weekend - I went out for breakfast and ordered egg white omelet which came with potato hashbrowns and toast - I ate the egg, had 1 or 2 pieces of potato and left the rest.
I felt bad for wasting, but thought if I ate it that's just a huge amount of calories I don't need. I felt like a "skinny person" LOL!! No but really, it was a huge NSV for me.
My skinny friend said she makes choices like a "checkbook" all day long, adding/subtracting and keeping a balance. If she has something sweet or fatty she will eat good the rest of the day, etc.
Wow, thanks for sharing! I know it's a risk to talk to some people about losing weight and healthy lifestyles, because some people can get so "preachy" (and it can make me feel vulnerable!), but I do think having an open dialogue with sincere, helpful people is important! Good for you for having these conversations!
Also, thanks for sharing the blog. The inner beauty junkie can't stop reading it!!! :-D
Looking at what "naturally thin" people do is pretty insightful, isn't it? I have a naturally thin fiance and being around him a lot really helped me explore my own eating habits (because before that I was really just around my family, and our eating habits were not that great). Even though he didn't eat healthy things at the time, I realized he didn't eat as much as I did!
Now I try to eat like a thin person, but some thin people I know just eat large amounts of healthy things (and thus, are low-calorie). I've slowly morphed in that
Thank you for posting this! Sometimes with thin friends you can feel like "ugh, you're so lucky you're skinny" but if you look closely (as you did) you can see that they are trying even if it's not all on show. Makes me want to ask some of my friends what they do now! Annoyingly though when I say they have great bodies they tend to say "no I don't! I'm fat!" Le sigh. Can't help but be nosey and say which character is your friend playing in The Hunger Games? I'm not a super fan of the books or film but I am a film fanatic!
I think it's very rare to encounter a female who can eat thousands upon thousands of empty calories every single day and still be thin beyond the age of 18 or so. The few people I know who can do this are former athletes.
Being in touch with your body's wants and needs and being able to eat intuitively are the two most important traits of people who can control their weight without spreadsheets and food journals.
In my own case, I don't think I ate anything other than carbs before the age of 23 or so, but I have been able to train myself into intuitive eating/better macros without too much difficulty and lost/maintained a lower weight as a result. I spend 5 days a week in the gym as "insurance."
No problem, ladies. I always like to share some insight on the skinny world that I have no idea how to be apart of. Honestly, for me, talking to these women is a habit. I have to help them monitor their bodies all the time! I am always asking them what they are doing and telling them what they should be doing, but I have never considered taking the advice.
24 years old / Glamour Model / 110lbs / 32D-24-35
I use to do a cardio class with this little lady and here are her habits. She actually decided to "transform" herself to follow her dreams of becoming a model. Because of her transformation she's gotten to party with the stars in Vegas and enjoy life in LA. Also, she is one of the sweetest people I have known - with a killer body to boot.
She was originally 135ish when she first began her transformation and was determined to get in the best shape of her life. Here are some of her lifestyle habits:
She's gone to her doctor an Enema (ew). She personally raves about how much stuff was left in her body and not cleaned out. However, she did say that eating the right amount of fiber would help as well. She also lost 5lbs of yucky stuff drained out of her.
She never sits when she eats breakfast or other meals at home. She prefers to stand because she doesn't want to get all settled in and comfortable, which causes her to eat more. In fact she purchases the Naked juice for her breakfast (measures it out to half a cup and fills the rest of the bottle or glass up with water and takes it to-go.
She use to go to McDonalds, on Tuesdays, for cheaper kids meals to get her fix. That's right. She would order a kid's meal and eat her burger, fries (or apple slices), and drink a free water. She also did this with friends, so she is held accountable for only eating ONE kid's meal after a cardio class. I went with her a few times or so after our cardio class.
Fridays are her cheat days! Yep, she eats whatever she wants on Fridays. Usually since she's been eating so healthy during the week, she can't eat much of whatever she's been craving that week, but she does have her nom nom days.
She doesn't drink alcohol. Nope, she refuses. There are too many calories and she doesn't feel in control if she has a glass of anything - plus it sucks the oxygen out of her muscles and exhausts her.
Thank you for posting this! Sometimes with thin friends you can feel like "ugh, you're so lucky you're skinny" but if you look closely (as you did) you can see that they are trying even if it's not all on show. Makes me want to ask some of my friends what they do now! Annoyingly though when I say they have great bodies they tend to say "no I don't! I'm fat!" Le sigh. Can't help but be nosey and say which character is your friend playing in The Hunger Games? I'm not a super fan of the books or film but I am a film fanatic!
She has a small role but I am super proud of her though. We're crossing our fingers she makes it past the cutting room floor. She was one of the Capitol Ladies, which was awesome. The outfits/hair/make up was outrageous!
I Had a Talk with my Skinny Friends
