So I'm a student at a huge state university and since I started my diet I've been bringing a nutritious lunch to school whereas before I used to buy food here (usually a chicken wrap or chicken tenders)..
Now that Im eating healthy though, all I notice around me is the CRAP people are eating!!! Its been motivating me even more to eat better...
I just watched some guy walk by with 4 pieces of pepperoni pizza, a salad COVERED in dressing, chips, and a coke. Im like thats my entire cal intake for the day and MORE...and I have no interest in even tasting ANY of it (or buying it myself).
I think the more I get 'detoxed' from eating all that crap the less and less it is appealing to me.

I know exactly what you mean! I've checked out more labels since I started dieting than I ever did before in my life and I'm much more aware of how many calories are really in a lot of those every day foods that people enjoy (burgers, pizzas, hot dogs, sandwhiches, cokes). It boggles my MIND the calories that people consume in one sitting. Of course, I used to do the exact same thing...and might again sometime soon lol. But not today!!

Yep, I'm the same way. I can't believe how many calories people can mindlessly stuff in their mouths. I want to warn them! And of course, I can't say that from a pedastal, because I most definitely shoveled my share of ridiculous amounts of calories into my piehole without giving it a second thought.

Last weekend at work we had a catered lunch, boxes of Chic-fil-A meals. I looked it up to fill out my menu for my box and got a salad and fruit for a dessert. Other people got fried chicken sandwiches with brownies for desserts. Those brownies had 490 calories each, and I watched my boss eat three of them. Who knows how many she ate when I wasn't around. Now I'm certainly not judging, because I've definitely been there, but once you realize how fast calories add up, it's just mindblowing to watch people eat.

I don't think I could force myself to eat a McDonald's burger or something, I'm just too aware of the calories and fat. That being said, I'd probably still drool over it. Even though I haven't had that junk for months, my cravings never went away, lol.

What I always found fascinating is how many calories there are in some small pieces of food. Take a small piece of brownie for example. You look at it and it doesn't seem much but then you look it up and that tiny piece is like 300 calories, the same as a huge bowl of salad.

It still makes me awe!

No kidding! I see that all the time at my school. I just smile to myself and think "By the time you are 30 your metabolism will be shot and I will have developed good habits."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSuSWUsrFFw

For me, the second I start working out, I can't eat junk anymore. I'll get healthier snacks that taste good(as well as a bar of dark chocolate to store in the house for emeeeeergencies ), but otherwise, if I'm working out, my body just naturally craves healthier foods.

This could also be why I shoot for working out 6 days a week...it's hard to get a lot of destruction food-wise in on that 7th day.

Not gonna lie though...totally jealous of the friends that can pack away pizza without any bad results.

i see that all the time everywhere! normally i bite my tongue (unless its a close friend/family member). its amazing how many calories are in certain things.

At least that's at school - I used to live with 4 guys - the amount of food they can eat was amazing...but they're guys...

I just look at it as everyone's metabolism/preference is different - and you're seeing one meal of the day. I remember when I used to eat one meal a day - usually McDonald's chicken nuggets and fries and I weighed 155 lbs. You don't know what else is going on in their lives.

One of my biggest pet peeves is people who comment on what others are eating - when I started this thing, I said to my roommates - don't you EVER say to me "should you be eating that?" I'll hurt you... I usually just stand by and let people make their own life choices. The ONLY exception is when someone is complaining that they're fat and then they eat a whole pizza. Then I'll say something, but other than that, I just let everyone live their own life

Pinkberry, LOL--like you I have become the food police. I don't say anything of course but I think it to myself.

I also find myself wondering why things have to be the way they are. Why can't you go to the store and get a cake store made with whole wheat flour and 1/4 the sugar? Why can't you get a turkey burger on whole wheat with spinach leaves at the drive-thru? Why are healthy choices when you go out the exception rather than the rule?

I don't notice other people eating very often, because most of my lunches are at my desk (I work through lunch so I can come in later in the mornings ). But when I go to restaurants or parties it's quite a shock. At my company holiday parties people were shoveling down apple pie and pumpkin bars like there was no tomorrow--we're talking cookies piled on top of brownies...and that was just their first plate!

Seriously, there must be a nugget of awareness in the back of their minds--they KNOW grandma wouldn't approve--but I guess they just ignore it. I know a few women who are always talking about losing a few pounds...do they think that's going to happen if they grab two enormous cheeseburgers for lunch? Probably not--people are smarter than that. There's just a shorted circuit somewhere.

@Why are healthy choices when you go out the exception rather than the rule?


I'm glad to see that more and more places are at least trying to offer some healthy choices. Whenever I go out with friends or family I can usually find something healthy - being a vegetarian makes it harder, though.

Isn't it funny how we get upset when people judge what we eat - they make comments like oh, a salad for lunch again - but we feel free to judge others with their supposed "unhealthy" food choices? Judgment isn't nice, no matter what end of it you are on.

I don't know if any of you have Italian grandmothers, but mine would certain approve of several plates worth of food - even at my highest weight of 223 she was trying to force-feed me, saying I looked too thin. She right about has a heart attack now when she sees me.

And eating healthy isn't something that comes naturally to everyone - I'm taking public health classes right now and it is very obvious that the education on healthy eating in this country is seriously lacking. So there MAY BE a disconnect between some people who say "I need to lose weight" and then have a cheeseburger for lunch - they may have no idea that that's not helping them. I know I was shocked when I found out caloric values in a lot of foods, and its something I still struggle with, years into this lifestyle change.

And I'm sure that many of you had to "learn" how to eat healthy - it wasn't something that just came natural that you had ignored for many years. I had myself convinced that I was eating better in college b/c I had chicken fingers and not the cheesesteak - why? because chicken is healthier than beef, duh....Years later I'm paying for that, and I only wish that they had given us the education we needed AND the healthier options.

But you know, maybe we can take it easy on the rest of the world who isn't going through this journey. I don't like to comment on people's food, mostly because I don't like them commenting on mine, I'm only volunteering when asked, but I really really try my best to not pre-judge when I see other people eating. No one likes to be judged. I think we can all agree on that.

stellarosa37: Haha medditerranean mothers are like that. I am from Cyprus and my mother used to never comment before my sleeve about how much food I was eating (and I was eating a ton), but now with the sleeve I eat such a small portion and 9 out of 10 times I never finish it and she just goes

"OMG YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED YOUR FOOD!"

I hear this in triple when both my grandmothers are invited over for lunch.

stellarosa: Hahaha, I live with my Greek grandmother (when I'm not at school) and every time I come home she nearly faints when she sees I've lost about a pound. Then she cooks LOTS of stuff she knows I love with a crazy amount of butter and sugar added. One 2-inch piece of her baklava is more than half my caloric intake for the day. It's not easy being thin and Mediterranean, girl!

I have started to notice what other people eat more, now that I'm trying to eat more healthfully. Some people just sit down and eat piles of everything the cafeteria offers, but I used to be the same way. I think it's a bit of an accomplishment that we can look at greasy fried chicken strips and think "ugh" instead of "yummy," because there's really so little from that our bodies need.

I'm trying to get that way with desserts, but I'm guessing it will take a long while. I have just a monster sweet tooth.

For me I think its less about judging and more about actually trying to help. Most of the time people don't know how many calories are in what they are eating. Even i'm left shocked half the time when I discover something that seems fairly healthy is in fact the opposite.

I live in a house where every meal is cooked in so much butter and oil you just want to throw up looking at it. I try to help my family make better choices but when no one wants to listen to you its hard to do anything.

My younger brother (12) eats four times the amount of food I eat. Its terribly unhealthy and I try to tell him that, but he doesn't want to listen and mom just tells me "hes young let him eat what he wants." It hurts me because I know thats how I got so big.

My mother always encouraged me to eat and eat and eat, and now that I know better it bothers me that they continue to eat like that. Im the only one living in the house who isnt considered "obese" besides my father (he has skinny genes, but far from healthy) I Will sit there and add up all the calories they consume and they will just laugh about it and say "Thats why it tastes so good"