Today, I bring you a new rant on this blog, and it is not because I have binged, gained two pounds overnight, polished off a platter of brownies, or failed to exercise three weeks in a row.
No, today I feel like ranting because, frankly, can we EVER do anything food-related without being immediately judged?
I explain.
If I pay attention to what I’m eating–meaning, if I don’t dip my hand every five minutes in the candy jar at work, or if I refuse a slice of pie because I’m not hungry anymore–, people almost immediately start asking me if I’m on a diet, if I’m sure I don’t want any, if this, if that, and you know, it’s oh-so-very tasty and it’s home-made and yadda-yadda.
If I refuse the pie a second time, concern/pity/whatever it is rises in their eyes, and there enters the hints about deprivation and “are you eating enough?” and all that jazz. Same goes when I bring my own food, because somehow, lots of people seem to think that if you’ve eaten less than one kilogram of food at one meal, then it necessarily means you’re not eating enough.
I won’t even mention the heap some go into if I have dared not finish my plate before. Again, when I’m not hungry, I try to, duh, stop eating. I don’t see what’s wrong with that.
When I bring healthy food at work, even though my platter is filled with vegetables, meat/fish, whole-grain starch (I love brown rice), a salad, and a fruit/yogurt for dessert (and even though I feel pretty satisfied once I’m done eating), it’s often all about “it must taste bland”, “aren’t you tired of vegetables?”, etc. College people are even worse in that regard, mind you.
BUT.
Holy freakin’ BUT!
If I finally eat that frelling slice of pie, if for once I indulge in a little bit of ice-cream, if I eat a fruit AND a yogurt in the same meal, if I allow myself a bretzel or two at that colleague’s birthday party (yeah, can you tell from my previous posts that we have those often?), what do I get? Huh? Guess, guess?
“Aren’t you worried about your weight?”
I swear, someday there’s going to be a murder, and it will very likely involve a spork, a microweave oven and a frozen box of Weight Watchers food.
Maybe things are different if we’re with people who have never known us overweight (for those of us who’re at goal now), or have never seen us try to eat healthier food for a change. But for the others, for those who, like me, are not really overweight anymore, yet could still do with a little less fat on the belly, butt and thighs… I wonder if that crap will ever end?
NB: To those very same people who constantly seem to question our dietary choices, no matter what those choices are (extended family, I’m looking at you): stop lumping YOUR insecurities and/or jealousy on us, m’kay?
August 22nd, 2007 at 18:32
I think some people just have a need to feel superior and “talk the talk” even though they have no intention of walking the walk. If you’re eating healthy, it must be bland and boring, and you must be horribly depriving yourself, and that way their 1kg lunch comes out looking like the “healthy” choice.
But then if you eat the pie, A-HA! The tubby girl is doing something forbidden! Never mind that they were just haranguing you to eat it a second ago. Never mind that, hey, maybe it’s your “cheat day” or you’ve decided to make room in your budget for pie today, or you’re celebrating a milestone, or you’ve just decided that, hey, it’s Tuesday and you’re having some pie because in the long run it doesn’t really matter what you do today as long as you do the right thing the rest of the time and life is too short not to eat pie. Because oh noes, if there’s room in a healthy lifestyle for pie, that weakens their belief that you’re depriving yourself, and maybe they’re not really making the best choice eating the way that they do. Ooh, we can’t have that!
Ah, cognitive dissonance. Isn’t it grand?
August 23rd, 2007 at 13:43
Sooo grand, indeed.
And I don’t even want to count the times I’ve been told “but I thought you were on a diet” (because, whether you advertise it or not, when people see you drop like 20 pounds, they start to suspect that something’s up). I don’t know, maybe it’s too hard for many people to fathom that eating healthily =/= being on a diet? Besides, if I were on a diet, I’d probably be at goal now–and in the process of gaining all the way back. :p
I wonder, though, how much this reveals about others’ insecurities. Or hypocrisy (”you normally tell us it’s fattening, so why did you bake it for us to start with?”). Depends.
August 28th, 2007 at 07:02
I LOVE throwing people off when the tell me that I look like I’ve lost weight or am looking really healthy, by eating a big old piece of cake in front of them. Eh? Are you jealous?
shameful I know. but then again they’re the ones judging, so may as well have a little fun.
August 28th, 2007 at 21:41
Yeah, somehow it feels like you can see in their eyes a “but how DID she succeed, eating like that??” expression…