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Day’?s Verse:
“Here it is again, the Great Reversal: many of the first ending up last, and the last first.”
Matthew 20:16 (context )
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This blog will be fairly critical, just to warn you. If you are on a diet and don’t want to have your feelings hurt, skip this post.
People on diets bore me.
Example: I excitedly noted that this Thursday marks the start of my company’?s single best benefit, free ice cream day, which continues through August. My coworker on a diet said: “Oh, really? I’?ll pass.” She also boasted to us about how “good” she was at a restaurant. Then she immediately confessed, “I did eat a roll,” quickly adding, “without butter!” Great, good job. You’?ve managed to completely ruin your eating experience by obsessing about how many points each item that enters your mouth has. She also eats those nasty prepackaged lunches. They may only be 2 points per lunch, but I bet she could eat fewer points if she munched on cardboard instead. Think of the fiber! No calories! No fat! What’s not to like?
I have no words for the deep level of…honestly…disgust I feel when my coworker makes those comments. It may come from my own anorexic experience, so I know how it feels to obsess about food, etc., but whatever the reason, I have no sympathy or patience for it anymore. I know that I’m in a fairly unique position, burning tons of calories each week and thus able to eat pretty much anything I like. Even so, I still feel that while dieting may provide a short-term solution, obsessively watching — and slashing — your food intake can only ever be unsustainable in the long run.
Get plenty of exercise, eat reasonably healthy, and enjoy life! I’ll take a few extra pounds if I enjoy myself in the process.
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Well said Katie. And I’m not offended…or maybe I should be.
Well Marty, I guess the first thing to do to determine if you should be offended will be to determine if you are on a diet. If you aren’t, congrats, no reason to be offended.
i miss ian.
also, ive been thinking a lot about this as of late and it really is kind of destructive. i think its sort of an american paradox. you are in control, do whatever you want, but also fit a certain mold. i think when you restrict yourself and think of it as “good” and “bad” youre just setting yourself up for binging.
not that ive found a balance at all. but last year, when i was counting calories, it was one of the best things i ever did for myself. because previous to that i was a terrible judge of the amount of nutrition i was getting from food. a “good” meal was 300 calories and a “regular” meal was 1500. it showed me what was in food and helped me make better decisions i think.
i am reading this book, the omnivore’s dilemma, and it talks a lot about how we eat what we think is food, but often times its just regurgitated nonfood packaged to look like food. so that meal your coworker was eating was a whole lunch and zero anything. if youre putting it into your body it should have some value. it should raise some red flags that it has no nutritive value.
i think it must suck to be constantly worried. i think i tend towards the side of enjoying mylsef toooo much and then pretty much removing any connection i have to the eating experience.
Like Katie, I can eat almost anyting I want without worrying about my weight. However, I have seen friends and coworkers who struggle to avoid obesity and I marvel at the challenge that this seems to present. On one hand, it should be simple: if you don’t want to be obese, don’t eat a mountain of food. But on the other hand, I have seen people honestly struggle with this – people who seem to lack the ability to limit their caloric intake. It is hard for me to understand, but I can’t deny that such people exist.
Katie’s dieting friend may be annoying, boring, bothersome, and irritating, but at least she is doing something positive to take control of the situation.
Believe me, there are plenty of other annoying, boring, bothersome, and irritating people in the world (right-wing conservative talk show hosts, for example!) that are much more deserving of our scorn than an innocent, dieting co-worker.
Dad,
You’re right, and I came across harsher than I intended. and I, too, have seen friends struggle with weight for many years, unsuccessfully trying to lose excess pounds. I respect how clearly difficult it is for people to lose weight, and I respect people for their commitment to trying to get healthy. I don’t want denigrate people who diet, or their difficulties.
I think that my coworker’s attitude that bothers me — she makes a big deal about what she’s sacrificing, constantly talks about how many points food items are, and it may be unintentional on her part, but everybody around knows just what she’s doing. Yes, I respect the effort she’s putting in, but if we didn’t have to hear about it every mealtime, and then between hear about what she made for dinner, and the low-points cake she made, etc…