I just grabbed my lunch, half a sandwich mind you, and a well-meaning co-worker said, "Every time I see you you're eating and I keep thinking how do you eat and stay skinny?"

Loved the "skinny" part!!

People really have this mis-perception that weight loss equals starvation. I do eat all the time. I eat several mini-meals a day. She just saw me grab a yogurt prior to the sandwich. I eat the same amounts of food everyone else eats, just spread out. So instead of having the half sandwich AND yogurt for lunch, I had the yogurt first and then a while later, the sandwich. Also, the other half that sandwich will get eaten before I leave, hoping to stave off afternoon hunger.

Anyway...we all hope that the scrutinizing of our diets will stop once we reach (or get close to) goal. I don't think it does!

I was eating lunch today, and noticed that my lunch was HUGE in comparison. Of course, theirs was a SlimFast (I didn't know anyone still drank those...).

Mine was yogurt, cereal, and a ton of fruit so just a lotof bulk compared to processed sugar.

Yep, I agree, I feel like I eat more, but the quality is so much better!

I get the "you're always eating" thing said to me too....I'm a grazer. my sit down meals are always piled high with veggies or I have a huge salad. I love when I can have quality & quantity!

I get comments on the amount of food that I bring to work. However, my big bag of food will have fewer calories than one of the little bitty items that my coworkers get from the vending machine.

I get comments about my "big" lunch bag. What people don't realize is that it contains my breakfast, lunch, and lots of snacks (fruits, veggies, hummus, yogurt). I like to bring a wide range because I never know what I'm going to want. I like to have my choices.

I know they look at me and just see the fat girl with the big lunch

Before you know it, coworkers will be asking you how you eat so much and keep losing!

Amen to that!!! And ppssshhawww on any co-workers that "just don't get it." I get comments on my gigantic lunch bag that is always packed full and sometimes I have 1 or 2 tupperware containers coming with me too. I love eating this way. I usually eat every 3-4 hours and I have "sit down" meals. The people I work with are always amazed at the amount of food that I bring in. I dont' mind because I would MUCH rather eat everything I brought than to even have 1 bite of the processed take out junk that most of them get everyday.

High Five for healthy eating!!!!

Yes, I get that all the time when I make a salad, whether at home or in line at a salad bar. Everyone is always astonished at how big it is & how much stuff I've piled onto it. Which they don't realize is 3/4 vegetables, many raw, and one 1/4 protein. "Wow, that's a BIG LUNCH."

I'm always tempted to start talking about volumetrics & etc., but I know no one is interested in that topic. Also, I'll be using words like "fiber," which makes non-healthy-eating-minded people start thinking about their bowels & bathroom habits, & etc.

Eliana, I eat the same way and recently realized that people who meet me now and don't know my history probably think I'm one of those "naturally skinny people who eats all the time"!

LOL What an awesome thought!

LOL. I've just moved and these people don't know me fat.... today at lunch, the somewhat chubby lady having lunch with me made a little comment about I had ordered "healthy" (grilled chicken salad) and she got fried chicken....
Later, she brought it up again-- about how I had ordered a "healthy" lunch.

I was laughing to myself thinking that she probably thought of me as one of those "smug slim ladies who always eats salad..."

I too eat all day long and get comments made about it. PEople are genuinely shocked to see the amount of food that I eat. There is a terrible misconception that losing weight (& keeping it off) means existing on H20 and rice cakes. Ha.

One thing I've noticed is that I am now a lot more willing to eat in public. I didn't realize I avoided it before, but when I was fat, I definitely preferred to eat in private, and if there were snacks at a meeting or anything like that, I never ate any of it because I felt judged (even though I really probably wasn't). Now, though, I have no problem eating in front of people--for example, my mid-morning "snack" at about 8:15 (breakfast is at 5) is a yogurt. I am always, always, always tutoring at 8:15, so I just pull my yogurt out of my lunch bag and eat it while I am tutoring. I would never have done that before, it would have seemed like such a "fat lady" thing to do, not being able to wait to eat. Now, I know it's my last chance to eat something for several hours and that I don't do well if I get too hungry. So I go ahead and eat it.

I've never had anyone comment, but I do feel conscious about the amount of food I eat at lunch when at work in comparison to my other coworkers, since the main part of my lunch is a big salad, plus I'll have fruit and maybe a granola bar or something. I feel like people are looking and thinking "how did she ever lose weight!" or "I can't believe she eats all that food!" It's probably just my paranoid imagination - or maybe not.

YEs, I too rarely ate in public. It's like I didn't want to show the world that I ate. I don't what I was thinking and who I was fooling - that perhaps people would think that I had some sort of mysterious condition that made me fat. Come to think of it though, I had a friend say to me once, " I never saw you eating that much." Well, yeah, duh... you never SAW me, didn't mean that I didn't do it. 95% of it was done in secret, in private.

My previous habits were a source of embarrassment and shame for me and I needed to keep it under wraps, though again, I'm not sure who I was fooling. Now - I don't care who sees me. I am proud of how I eat and I have nothing what so ever to hide.