Love your blog, Gabe.

Great attitude in this thread! Y'all know what works for you and you don't let others get in the way. I love it!

I'm late to finding this but so glad I did! I am laughing still! Quite humurous. You do your thing. You have proven it works. You are getting healthy. I think I needed to read this to simplify my own stupid head, too! LOL! Thank you!!!!!

AGREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

My weight loss is really slow. I don't tell most people I am on a diet.
I do have friends comment on my weight loss at times. But I am so thankful they don't give me too much advice.

I tell them I am counting my calories. They don't seem to understand what that means, so I don't elaborate. So far no one is aggravating me by giving me much advice.

I go to breakfast with friends sometimes. They try to tell me potatoes are no good for me, and to substitute tomatoes. I tell them I am allergic to tomatoes, so I am stuck with the potatoes.

And I have a friend that is a vegetarian and tells me not to eat any meat. I tell her that I have to eat meat or I get very weak.

And they tell me not to use cream in my coffee. But I use it anyway, and I tell them I have the calories figured into the meal. When I tell them the cream I use is only 20 calories, they don't know what that means at all, so they don't make any more comments. They just sit and fume, and I ignore it.


And they try to tell me to join a gym and get more exercize. So I remind them I have a knee injury and I am hard pressed to just get my daily chores done around the house. They see I walk really slow because of a pulled ligament that pains me more as the day goes on.

I do exercizes at home that don't compromise my knee. They think I should do running and walking, so I have to remind them that I can't do that type of exercize. They don't know anything but jogging and biking and fad dieting.

I just stick to my guns, speak softly and carry a big stick.
They all hit a brick wall and are extremely frustrated with my injury and allergies. They might be able to manipulate and chastise others, but not me. I just ignore their frustrations and have a good time when I am out with them.
They get extremely agitated, but I am just amused by it.

I could give them a lot of advice, but they just do not understand what calories are and that calories can be counted up to lose weight.

I've found another de-winging phrase that, while not specific to calorie counting exactly still inspires an amount of good, old-fashioned mouth-foaming and classic-flavored vitriol. Vitriol tastes like Mountain Dew, incidentally. Mountain Dew right after you've just brushed your teeth. Tres terrible, no? And why would you douse your teeth in sugar right after brushing, anyway? Frankly, I think you deserve whatever you get.

Ahem, anyway.

The phrase "yeah, but what a way to go." This is chiefly uttered when someone (say, my mom) has decided to make something delicious (say, super buttery garlic bread on asiago loaf) that I can't fit into my plan without doing math that would make the State of Illinois's congressional budget committee proud. So I'll say, "yeah, but it has like eight bajillion calories." And she'll invariably say, "yeah, but what a way to go."

Look, I haven't lost 134 pounds by going anywhere. I go to the gym, I go to the supermarket, and I go to Panera (mmm, Panera vegetable soup...). I do not go to wherever it is that this cheezy garlic bread will take me. And since you've been watching me do this for a year, you should freaking know better, all right? I am static. I am immovable. I am the mountain, and I am not going anywhere!

My bigest annoyance are the "whole foods/gluten free/dairy free/lactose free/sugar free/fat free/ ORGANIC? blah blah blah......
Guess what? your ORGANIC potato chips have as many calores as my regular potato chips.

I love it when i hear those people say they are trying to lose weight but cant...... I ask whats their diet? " Oh, you know, im trying to eat all organic, natural and whole foods, you know, eat CLEAN"....... Ummmm...... those foods have calories too (often times more). People dont understand thats its ALL ABOUT THE CALORIC DEFICIT. Thats the only thing that matters, for fat loss.

But, the masses need a bandwagon to jump on..... right now its the crucification of anything processed or, God-Forbid, <GASP!> High fructose corn syrup!
Dont worry, tomorrow it will be protein... at least, as soon as we decide that carbs ARENT the devil and the reason we are all fat

BTW, am i the only one who noticed the BIg Bang Theory Reference? paper rock scissors lizard spock?

Oh, oh! I have one! Aspartame!

I told one of my friends a while back that I lost 130 pounds. I then mentioned that I was drinking some Diet Coke. She immediately started with, "oh, that's terrible for your health! You're going to get tumors!"

Y'know, because with all of my unhealthy lifestyle choices before, the problem wasn't that I was, you know, clearing out the stock at McDonalds for breakfast, or that I'd been defining my four food groups as "french fries, other fried foods, meat, and chocolatey carbs." No. It's clearly the Diet Coke.

That being said, some people feel like crap when they have aspartame, so I shrugged my shoulders and moved to a less controversial topic, like Middle East peace or the New York Yankees.

A couple of days later, she started linking me to articles, mostly about how aspartame inhibits weight loss. Hm. I have 130 pounds and a newfound waistline that says it doesn't inhibit my weight loss. My willpower lasts right up until the point where you try and take my Diet Coke. At that point, I'm Linda Blair vomiting pea soup. No. Never gonna happen, and may God have mercy on your soul for even suggesting it.

I read through this thread, chuckling at what some of you endure from friends and loved ones. My endeavor is a bit more subtle and not as noticeable to most people, so I don't get the "input" from others that you all are getting, but I was struck by something after reading everyone's experiences. Why in the WORLD do other people get so bent out of shape at what someone else is doing? Why do Marla26's friends care so much if she eats potatoes, or if Gabe drinks a Diet Coke? Is any of that hurting THEM? Why do other people get so opinionated and emotional about someone else's journey? It all can't be about control, can it?

**** yeah!! I found my people!!! Ya'll had me laughing so hard.

I had the granola thing happen too. I was over a friend's house and she was on a diet and it was granola-eating time. Well, the correct serving is 1/4 cup. She filled up this huge bowl! I was like, "Congrats on being healthy and all but you do realize you're eating about 1500 calories in granola and almond milk."

I too kept my calorie counting a secret for as long as I could because I knew that as soon as people learned I was working on losing weight the Food Police would come. After much explaining and evidence (lost 70 lbs in 6 months), my family gets it. My closest friends get it. My co-workers - ehhh, not so much. I work in healthcare and it just doesn't compute to them how I can eat fast food or a candy bar from the vending machine during lunch and still lose weight. I must be "falling off the wagon" or "cheating". It always gets a raised eyebrow or two. Ehh - f' off! I'm fine. Mind your own damn business.

I have read somewhere about the idea that organic etc food has fewer calories, so you can eat more of it. I think it's called the "healthy halo" or "healthy aura" or something. And Wansink (the end of overeating guy) did a study that showed if a salad was included in a picture of a meal, without changing anything else, people rated the meal with the salad as having fewer total calories than the meal without.

My mom and my two aunts REALLY want to know about my weight loss, and keep asking me, so I explained about counting calories, and accurate poortion control, showed them my calorie tracking app. They all downloaded the app, but only put in some things, at random, and count everything as one portion no matter how big it is, lol. And then rationalize it by saying (they're German), "Ja, aber gutes Brot macht nicht dick." That is, "Healthy bread [or whatever thing they are eating at the moment] doesn't turn into fat."

Here's a funny article about the Health Halo in the New York Times. HEalth Halo can hide the calories.

LMAO at bronzeager - I have German family and you should hear the phrases I get

I've only just started calorie counting (for the first time ever) combined with doing Slimming World to see what effect the normal things I eat during a day have on my daily totals. very interesting to find that some "healthy" stuff I'm having seems to be anything but. Anyway, I digress....

I get loads of stupid comments too - the latest favourites run along the lines of "OMG you've lost too much weight now - be careful you don't get anorexic" What??? I'm only just in the healthy weight range for heaven's sake! Oh and then there's meeting people for coffee and the "oh go on have a cake - it won't kill you" lines. *rolleyes*

Thankfully most of my friends "get it" and have been totally supportive.

Ugh. I hate going into my plan for just this reason. It's like watching Homer Simpson piling toppings onto a rice cake, then declaring it's 35 calories. Speaking of Homer, I wish the Simpsons were still good.

My mom says I should write a book about my diet plan. I joke and tell her it'd be a really short book, like one of those religious tracts you find lying about at the train station. "1.) Eat Less. 2.) No, seriously. Eat less. 3.) ...puppies? I don't know. I have a page count, here..."

Rated up up up!

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