I am so tired of getting unsolicited advice from people - especially coworkers. When I want advice, I come here.
Today's story entails my coworker... we'll call her Liz. She comes up to me (noticing I am eating my normal salad with turkey breast and low-fat greek dressing [yes, I measure]) and says to me... "You don't have to eat salad every day... if you want to lose weight, all you have to do is eat at Subway."
She pulls out her Chicken Bacon Ranch sandwich concoction and proceeds to tell me the entire sub (footlong) could only have about 400 calories or so because it is just meat, bread, and veggies. (She thinks she is an expert estimator and doesnt count calories in drinks or sauces becuase they are "minimal" to her) I looked up the sandwich and for a 6 INCH it is 540 calories... so, double that - add her chips (she says sun chips are health food) and "raspberry tea" and goodness knows how much she is ingesting.
She is at least 100 pounds overweight. Should I send her the nutrition info? Unsolicited advice from people annoys me so I dont want to be a hypocrite but I cant stand when people try to tell me how to lose weight. I have lost over 50 pounds and am very close to a healthy BMI... but she still thinks she knows better.
I dislike when people think of salads as diet food.
I LOVE salads. And I used to eat them a lot even when I wasn't concerned about losing weight.
I wouldn't send her the information, though I'd be sorely tempted. It just wouldn't be productive, and it might invite her to preach more about whatever she "knows" to be true about dieting.
Take the high road on this one, and be content in the knowledge that if you did eat at Subway, you'd at least have the notion to look up the information for it, and not "estimate". (Even though her estimation sounds more like wishful thinking.)
She's so darned sure that she's an 'expert' estimator? How about the cold, hard facts?? Maybe it will be the eye-opener that SHE needs to take a good look at her own diet.
I think I'd send her the complete meal:
* how much for the footlong, the sun chips and the raspberry drink all together.
Then just say, I thought you might like to know that even though Subway tries to bill itself as 'healthy' fast food, it's still NOT (granted there are a few healthier choices, but it doesn't sound like she's picking them)!
@170, wow, you've lost over 50 lbs, so I'd say *you're* the dieting authority LOL. I agree with lovely. Just smile, be nice, and forget about it. It's a waste of brain space to educate someone who doesn't want it. Funny that someone 100 lbs+ is doling out dieting advice.
That said, Subway does have its place. When I was traveling around small US towns that had only a salad-bar-free market, a McDonalds, and a Subway, at least Subway had the protein-veggie fixins you could pick out from the bread if desperate. But the sandwich, mayo, dressing, drink and chips....uh, no.
If you hate unsolicited advice, why would you give it?
I've gotten so much unsolicited advice and while it's really annoying, it's not worth getting into a tiff with people just because they're misinformed. It's really hard to not get mad at people though, as calorie counts are all over the place and easily found. ESPECIALLY here in New York where most restaurants are required to make their calorie counts public!
I do hate that subway is always seen as healthy, but I believe they have the calorie counts and nutritional information right there when you're ordering, even in other areas. I recall seeing the information in CT when I got subway, but I don't know if they have the same requirements as NY. Personally I love subway because I can get a quick, low-calorie meal if I need.
I agree with sontaikle and others on this thread. If you do not like unsolicited advice on weight loss, then do not give it. It helps no one and it just may make someone's bad day even worse. As far as Subway goes, I like it and usually eat only it when I go out of town for conferences. Its nice because they have a lot of footlong sandwiches that are under 600 calories, including cheese and sauce (as long as you stick to vinegar or mustard and stay away from mayo and dressing). And considering my daily calorie total is 1800, I can have a sandwich for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and still stick to my daily calorie allowance.
Agreed, don't tell her. If she brings it up, you might murmur, "Apparently studies have shown that the vast majority of people underestimate how many calories they consume by about half [er, check that, I'm talking from memory here], so I like to look up the calorie counts myself," but only if she's being really pushy.
I've done a lot of unhealthy eating in my times (still do sometimes) but I always knew I was eating unhealthy food. I'm sure she does too. Come on a foot long sub? Even if it has no mayo or cheese you just at a foot long roll.
I'd just tell her to keep her advice to herself. No need to tell her how many cals she just ate. She can see the calories in the tea and the sunchips right on the packaging.
That unsolicited advice would annoy me too, especially since she doesn't really know what she is talking about. I probably would be tempted to correct her, but you should probably just bite your tongue like the others suggest. It's hard, I know, but a least you know youre doing the right thing by doing what you're doing.
When people want to openly scrutinize my diet, I feel I can also scrutinize theirs.
Ask her how well her diet at Subway has been working for her in the past few months.
Also give her some of the websites that will track her calories and exercize.
Try to steer her in the right direction. She needs it.
I just had a second thought about this that could prevent it in the future.
Next time it happens, put down your fork, pause dramatically, and say, "what I eat is none of your concern." Smile sweetly. Pick up fork.
I did this once. I was the only slim (at the time) woman in my workplace of 26 people. I almost always brought my own healthy lunch, while EVERYONE else went over to the ethnic restaurants and pigged out. Our break was about 2.5 hours (I was performing in a show) and I would work out a block away for an hour, then eat as everyone was getting ready for the evening show.
I was getting so tired of the other women (men couldn't care less lol) bugging me about my figure and food choices. So once again, this sad sack co-worker started off on me, "why are you eating that, you don't need to lose weight, you should eat something!" I was eating a full meal of grilled chicken, veggies and brown rice! So I looked at her and said, "Mitzi," paused, "my weight is none of your concern." You could hear a pin drop in that room. Until the guys started snickering.
I never heard another comment for the next five years I did that show.
Being mean to someone who was mean to you may make you feel better in the short-term, but it doesn't make you a better person. You may choose to take the low road like some others on this thread, but my hope is that the next time you receive unsolicited dieting advice, you extend empathy and not witchiness. We all have someone in our lives we would like to tell off, but most of us know better and so we do better. Oh, and crimsons, I would really stop repeating that story if I were you because you come off far worse than your coworkers.
I didn't say anything to her, but I was close. I was so frustrated when I posted. I am still aggravated but I have cooled down. Her self-sabotage is none of my business. It is between her and the king sized 3 Musketeers bar she just ate because it "is lighter than normal chocolate - it's healthy... you want some."
"All you have to do to lose weight is..."
And I used to eat them a lot even when I wasn't concerned about losing weight.
Maybe it will be the eye-opener that SHE needs to take a good look at her own diet.
