Anybody else trying to diet while living with a junk-eater?

  • It is so frustrating! I love my boyfriend to death, but his eating habits are atrocious and oh-so-tempting! He's one of those eat-whatever-never-gain-a-pounders...He eats like a five year old! Chicken nuggets, fries, won't touch anything green...in fact the only vegetables he'll eat either have to be fried or in a can. He brings home fast food every other day and has to always offer me some. I've told him not to do that, but I think he feels like he's being nice or something. It's kind of disappointing, because ever since I've been trying to bring healthy foods into my diet, we just can't share a meal together!
  • Do you two eat at the same time? Or can he eat his fast food on the way home instead of in the hosue? I don't live with anyone but I work people who don't eat anything green either. I found that if I eat before them, the smell of their double cheeseburgers and french fries don't bother me as much and I'm not so tempted to grab something bad for me. Kinda like going grocery shopping when you are not hungry. Keeps you from grabbing something in a moment of weakness!

    On a separate note......although you boyfriend eats all this bad food and never gains a pound, I can only imagine what is happening to his insides! Arteries, cholesteral levels, etc.
  • It's not easy, is it? My husband and son would happily live on junk food. I'm the primary food buyer/maker in my house so I have SOME control but not total. If I'm ever tired/too busy/out of ideas to make us a healthy meal, they're going to suggest junk, and it's HARD to resist all the time.
  • Me Too - My husband is a chip eater. I love chips. So much. I miss them. Like the deserts miss....the....ah forget it. Anyways it is a little frustrating! He eats them unapologetically and with relish. (Obv. not the condiment) It is a bit difficult, but I've managed to have only one portion since February and I feel a strong sense of accomplishment when I don't have any.
  • I live with three roommates who eat 3 different sets of junk food all day. *sigh* I feel ya
  • thanks for the replies! I know, I'm worried about his health as well, but there's nothing I can get him to try..he thinks that he's fine as long as he takes a vitamin supplement, which is better than nothing, but we all know thats not enough.
  • yes, cookies, sausage rolls, chocolate, sugar filled cereals, he also a never gains a pounder. I just make him hide it, if it needs to be kept in the fridge I try to treat it like it doesn't belong to me and if I want one I have to ask to which he has been told to refuse. I do wish I could get him a mini fridge though.
  • YES I definitely understand. I live with one other girl and, for the most part, it's all fast food, chinese takeout, or pizza. It's incredibly tempting, but luckily we don't really offer each other food too much so it's not like I'm constantly getting bombarded with requests to eat junk.

    My ex-bf on the other hand (who I just broke up with a couple of weeks ago) was worse. It was fast food ALL THE TIME, several times a day even. And fast food is my biggest vice...it's the main reason I got to my highest weight. I tried to say no but considering we were always in a drive through line, it was really really hard. And believe me, he needed to lose weight himself. The good thing is we're not together anymore and I'll be on the lookout for a guy that lives a more healthy lifestyle.
  • I live with my husband and two grown sons who are junk food eaters. My husband offered me junk for awhile after I started eating healthy. After I consistently turned him down, he quit offering. I really did not blame him. For many times over many years I would tell him that I was through eating junk but within a couple of days, I would be eating it again. He had to see that I was serious this time before he really believed that I would not eat junk.

    One compromise that we worked out really helped me. While it would be ideal, I knew that I could not completely keep junk food out of the house so we made a deal. I gave him a short list of junk food that I just did not think I could resist and he did not bring them into the house. Later I figured out that giving him a list of junk that I don't like and wasn't tempted to eat worked even better. I put some of his favorite junk on the list and he was happy.
  • I live in house full of junk food eaters. Not quite as bad perhaps, cause it isn't all kiddie food, and even my kids eat veggies and salads. I don't try to change anyone else's eating habits. I don't discuss what I eat with anyone or bring up what they eat either. Although, when I see my boyfriend drink 24 ounces of whole milk standing in front of the fridge, I can't help but think "WOW! You just drank a third of my days calories in three minutes!" I resist saying it aloud. LOL

    When I say not quite as bad, I mean that I can cook basically one dinner and modify it for myself. For example this week's dinners so far have been:
    Homemade pizza. We all had salad. They had the usual pizza. I made myself an individual whole wheat crust pizza with 1 ounce of mozzarella, 1/2 ounce of goat cheese, some mushrooms and onions.

    Rigatoni and meatballs with rolls from the leftover pizza dough and salad. I had just a half cup of the rigatoni plus sauce, 2 turkey meatballs (and two of the six others chose turkey too), salad, and a roll.

    Last night, bacon sandwiches, tortilla chips with salsa, and applesauce (weird but by request by my 6-year-old) for the fam. I had salad, and a small bacon sandwich...wheat bread grilled with a tsp of butter, 1 oz goat cheese, and 2 slices of bacon.

    So, my family still gets all their favorites, and I get my version, which I often find more delicious anyway.
  • haha, yes. my roomate is trying to gain weight as i'm trying to lose it. she doesn't like to eat much food, so she'll keep really calorie dense things -- like she'll eat icing straight from the jar. she eats so many twinkies and cupcakes, i don't know how she stays 115 lbs.

    anyway, luckily for me, the things she keeps around were never trigger foods for me and i've never had any compulsion to eat them.
  • Yes. Since I started this 2 years ago I have lived with a major junk food eater ... my wife.

    She maintains her weight and is on the border of underweight but she buys a lot of snack/junk food. I just don't eat it. (Most of the time)

    I personally think that you can use anything you want as an excuse. If it isn't this it will be something else. If you want to find an excuse to why you can't follow your plan you'll find one. (I'm not talking to anyone in particular I'm just pointing it out.)
  • Well...i live with myself and i am a junk eater, so yes. Right now i have two bags of my favorite chocolates--mini kit kats and white reese's cups--on my nightstand, in addition to various other junkfood in the kitchen. It doesn't bother me that they are there. I tell myself, it's not that i can't have them...i just can't have them NOW. Maybe some other time. Also...i tell myself i can have one, but honestly, just eating one doesn't even sound appealing at all. It's the binge eater in me...i want to eat half the bag, so if i can't do that i don't want one at all.

    I know it must be a lot harder to control yourself, however, when you live with someone who eats that stuff right in front of you. Be strong!
  • My husband eats junk all the time and never gains an ounce. The sheer volume of food that goes into his body is astonishing. It makes me sick

    Cooking is a talent of mine and I genuinely love to do it. Almost everything I make is from scratch. I grew up in the traditions of southern food as comfort and social activity.

    The kids of course love fast food and anything sugar. We have company over to eat on a regular basis. It has become second nature to have some homemade dessert on hand pretty much every day. As I type this I have butter softening on my kitchen counter to bake some homemade chocolate chip cookies later.

    Before I'd have tasted little spoons of dough as I wait for batches to come out of the oven, and eaten a couple every time I passed through the kitchen. I shudder to think how many I actually consumed without even thinking about the numbers.


    I know that every pound down on the scale is work for me. As delicious as those cookies may be, they aren't worth undoing that effort. NOTHING tastes as good as getting thin feels. My problem isn't finding the willpower to lose the weight. As much food as passes through this house I know that if I don't eat those cookies, it's not like it's a special occasion. There'll be an abundance of them available in my future.

    Once I lose the weight is when I get complacent. I get right back into old habits because the temptation never ends. This time I'm hoping to combat that by substitution. Today-and hopefully permanently-I won't bake those cookies unless I have something healthier that I like on hand. Standing there empty-handed while everyone else scarfs down something yummy is the worst. If I'm chewing on an alternative it's not quite as bad.