Diets are BORING.
April 30, 2008 by jamboree
I was suckered into a diet conversation today at mother’s group. This surprised me (though, it probably shouldn’t have — mothers of young children talk about losing weight all the time), and in the end I had to leave the room.
I’m not interested in how few “sins” your dessert was last night. I’m not interested in how “amazing” your diet is because you “don’t feel hungry all the time” and you can have “3 1/2 sins every day!1!”. Talking about what you’ve eaten over the past week in excrutiating detail isn’t my idea of stimulating conversation.
If I wanted to talk about mundane details of life, I wouldn’t have come to a group with built-in daycare. Instead, I would have hung out with my one year old and talked about all the trees and cars we can see as we walk down the sidewalk, over and over and over again. (which, you know, is cute and all, but not for an hour straight.)
I realise that people on diets are pretty emotionally attached to them, so I didn’t tell this room of women that diets don’t work and that she’s hurting herself. But I can’t listen to it, and I certainly couldn’t sit there nodding or feigning interest.
AMEN.
I used to be that person. All the time, trying something new. 22 straight years of diet talk. It’s so … sad. I’m not sure I would have been saying anything world-shaking if my face hadn’t been full of Hoping For Slender Words - but I wish I could relieve myself from those years of hope and betrayal.
I have this problem at work. It’s a really small office. Just 5 of us work here. I’m the only fattie. And, surprisingly (sarcasm indicated), I’m the only one not on a diet. The other 4 people aren’t even chubby!!! I try really hard not to have to eat lunch with them (especially when they order out) because I’ll be eating real food, while the 4 of them are eating salads and talking about their damn diets. Two are on Weight Watchers and two are on South Beach. Oh. I’m sorry. Scratch that. One WW just left for another job and the 2 South Beachers talked the other WW woman into doing their diet. So now it’s 3 on South Beach and only me eating the food I actually want to eat.
It makes me sick that these very skinny women are putting themselves through this shit. It can’t possibly be healthy!! And no, I don’t want to spend lunch time talking about the Biggest Looser finalie either!!
Amen sistah!
My place of employment (don’t get me started) is aving a “biggest loser” contest.
If I hear one more word about who isn’t eating what and how to make faux foods (really- if you mix some equal in cottage cheese, it will taste like cheese cake– NOT!), I’m going to break out and force feed home made pies to every single one of them!
If I hear one more comparison of frozen pseudo meals and the calorie content versus taste, I am going to hire a caterer and have real food presented to these freaks- I don’t think they know what it is anymore!
A bunch of the moms in my homeschool co-op were all doing WW and I thought my head would explode if I had to hear one more conversation about reducing all their meals into points. Either a lot of them dropped it or they figured out it was getting old for the rest of us, because I don’t hear it as much anymore. I did WW off and on for years and years and I know I sounded the same way. It’s funny how coming through to the other side makes you realize just how food obsessed and crazy people on diets sound.
Obsessed is the word for it, alright. I used WW for about a month, when I was 19, and I became dangerously obsessed. I saw myself developing an eating disorder all too easily through dieting, and I stopped cold turkey.
I was planning every single morsel that went into my mouth when I was dieting. All I ever thought about was food. Funnily enough, as a non-dieting, non-repentant fat woman, food is not an obsession. I don’t think about it when I’m not hungry. I eat normal portions. Weird how that works, huh?
I was at a party a few years ago where the dieting discussion came up.
I pointed out that diets are not a permanent solution and most people gain back the weight they lost. I’m afraid the ensuing discussion became a little heated.
My spouse and I have never been invited back.
So I guess I need to add diets to politics as something I shouldn’t discuss in social situations!
I used to work in a nursing home several years back and two co-workers were always talking about food and dieting. One I suspect was orthorexic, since she was obsessed with working out (she exercised every day, for up to three hours) and read food labels like it was the Bible. The other yo-yo dieted, trying everything from South Beach to WW, and 90% of her conversations were about food and losing weight for this event and that event. She was a size 12/14, the other was an 8/10. As the fattest chick in the department (26/2
I ate what I wanted and never obsessed about food and dieting 24/7. My exercise was my job—I was in activities and barely had a chance to sit down. Out of the two of them, I was also the least sickest. So I don’t want to hear that constant dieting and overexericising is healthy. Planning your life around what to eat and how much you should weigh is not normal behavior, unless you have to be on a restricted diet due to allergies, severe diabetes, etc.
I have lived on both sides of the fence, for more than 40 years. Painful stuff. What could women accomplish if we harnessed the diet energy and turned it elsewhere??
“So I guess I need to add diets to politics as something I shouldn’t discuss in social situations!”
Eh, screw that - if they bring it up it’s fair game.
Jamboree, aside from the fact that they no longer, you know, worked, I figured out like 15 years ago that diets WERE freaking boring as hell. About the most boring thing in the world. That as much as anything led to me stopping. Being on them is boring (thinking about food all. the. time.) and hearing about them is worse. When people around me start in, my eyes glaze over, I roll my eyes (sometimes insert sarcastic comment) and get busy doing something else. I pay no attention. That would be more difficult in a mother’s group, I understand. Or after a polite interval one could do that singsong - “BOOO-ring!” and bring something else up. I’m gonna try that next time.
Unfortunately on this job they don’t discuss their own diets but the diets of others, and whether it looks like they’re sticking to them. I give that the same treatment - rolley-eyes and getting busy.
I feel the same way when I’m in a group full of women and they keep talking to me about how they have to stay away from this food or that food. Or how they are trying to lose 5 pounds. Its amazing to me how many people really don’t get it. I tell them about my blog and my own body politics and they still insist on saying things to me like “I need to lose weight for this upcoming wedding.” We at Eat A Cheeseburger also believe diets are boring and an incredible waste of time and energy. Body acceptance all the way!
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“It’s funny how coming through to the other side makes you realize just how food obsessed and crazy people on diets sound.”
Amen.
Having been on so many diets for so long it was very humbling; once I STOPPED dieting, to realize how often that sort of discussion DOES come up! My boss is so obessed with food she asks me what I’M having for dinner. At 8 am. It made me so abashed for how it must have sounded coming from my lips “Okay so I’m aiming for (insert obsenely low calorie number here) a day and its 12pm and so far I’m only a third of the way there. With a palm sized piece of chicken I can have a cup of Rice-a-roni, but not the Pilaf since that has more calories but boy does it taste good but then if I’m still under by XX amount then I can have a 1/4 cup of ice cream”
Seriously. At freaking noon I would be planning every moment until bedtime; hoping I wouldn’t “slip up” and eat a reese’s PB cup or something; which would pre-empt that 1/4 freaking cup of ice cream! *screams in remembery*
The sad part is that not only was that my LIFE for so long at work and home; I also couldn’t DRIVE anywhere without fantasizing about the food they had at EACH restaurant we passed….wondering “ooo should we stop and be naughty” at each one…
And now, I go hours a day getting work done and having hobbies and doing crafts without even THINKING about food or when I next get to eat it. I’ve never felt mentally healthier….and I bless these blogs for that every day! ^^