A funny observation about my food-pushing coworkers

(Linda Culbreth) #21

It has been my experience that a fat burner person is less likely to push their way of eating than a sugar burner is to push their way of eating.

#22

I actually haven’t dealt with this but if I do I would love to bring it back to the other person (rather than defending - we shouldn’t have to defend what we put in our own mouths!). Have any of you tried anything like “Wow, it’s really important to you that I eat that brownie/candy/ice cream” or just “Why do you care what I eat?”

(Doug) #23

Makes sense to me, Linda. Personally, and for most of the people I know, it’s either that the individual will have either found a better way of eating, or be stuck to varying degrees in the old, carb-heavy diet that most of us were conditioned to have and believe in. Nobody has given me grief over keto/fasting, but for the past 50 years I just did not know; now I do.

(Jen) #24

It’s honestly why I logged on to the forums and decided to write about it instead of blowing up at them! Y’all make me smile. :slight_smile:

(John B) #25

I work for a food company, and every now and then we have suppliers bring us samples. Several times, we have lots leftover, cakes, pies, muffins. Yesterday in fact there was a 4 layer rainbow vanilla cake with vanilla frosting…in other words, ‘my go to cake!’ As I have done before, i sent out an email alerting all the employees of the samples, so they can come and share. Most know I am not eating sweets, or carbs for that matter, but they always ask if I had any. And while some do ‘push’ slightly, most understand what I;m doing.

(Suzi Smotrycz-Guilford) #26

It’s so hard where I work-a busy same day program at a teaching hospital! There seems to be a never ending supply of baked goods, candy and junk lurking around every corner. The food pushing still happens but I sit back and marvel at how good I feel and proud of myself that I can resisit the temptation of all those treats. It is so not worth it!

(Stephanie Tebbs) #27

My office, especially my department is very pushy about food. One of the managers likes to use the line “just throw it up later.” I know it’s a joke and I don’t find it offense personally but if there is anyone struggling or recovered from an eating disorder, I could see that as being offense. I’ve been tempted to pull her aside but she’s doesn’t like me very much due to my eating and exercising habits and I don’t want to get on worse terms with her.

I think it comes down to people feeling bad about their bad choices and they feel better if everyone in participating. I used to explain or make excuses but now I just stick to “no thanks” and continue that response until they give up. I’ve been on keto for 3 months but haven’t had sweets at the office for close to year. There are times they don’t even offer anymore.

#28

That is how my fat life began. Always told to be grateful for what was on the plate, and to finish it because others are worse off. The reward was DESERT.

(Linda Culbreth) #29

My Mom: “Finish your plate. Think about the poor, starving kids in (name the country) They would give anything to have your plate.”

Me (Totally to myself): “They can have mine. How do I get it to them?”

So, I became a member in good standing of “the clean plate club”.

(Gale Dacalio) #30

Good going. I work in a hospital too (in the deep south… LOL); so I can feel ya… They gave up on me after 4 years of working there. O f course I was Paleo when I started and just started really getting serious about Keto this last year.

(James Willis) #31

There are a lot of reasons why people push food. They want to feel better about their own unhealthy eating choices (this is possibly the most common)… food is a “sentimental” thing for them, a way of showing love or friendship, etc., they’re hurt you “didn’t want” their cooking, etc. (this is the one you always run into in family gatherings, of course)… they’re simply oblivious and can’t really wrap their head around the “keto” thing you’ve mentioned, or they just can’t process it right now, as their food-entranced minds literally have no ability to understand anything in the world right now except for “OMG BISCUITS YUMMM!”… jealousy/envy- they fear you having a success when they aren’t… or… … damn, in some cases maybe they really do just want to sabotage you! Either because they simply don’t like you, or because they’re the kind of person who emotionally thrives on manipulating another person away from a path that is important to them, to PROVE THEY CAN, because it makes them feel POWERFUL. Naturally, this is the most important out of all of them to resist. But, all of them, whichever part of the innocuous>pernicious spectrum they occupy, should be called out on their s@#t!

(Clare) #32

It’s funny isn’t it - people will entertain all sorts of weird fad diets for a quick fix - cayenne pepper in water, grapefruit and hard boiled egg etc but tell them you don’t eat potatoes and they behave like you’ve just landed from Mars.

(Siobhan) #33

I find this to be true as well… we once got ice cream as a reward for meeting an in-office goal. My manager asked if I wanted something else since he knows I don’t do sugar. I asked for a coffee with lots of heavy cream.

Later on when the ice cream came I was enjoying my coffee when the food pushing began. Come on… try some ice cream… this flavor is really good…
I eventually got tired of it and said that “despite how good I’m sure it is, sugar like that brings back my joint pain and pain like that at 21 years old is not something I think is a fair trade off for some ice cream. It doesn’t make me feel good. It’s not a treat for me or somehhing enjoyable. Its painful”

They shut up for then… they still bother me occasionally, tell me I’m going to drop dead from a heart attack from eating all the bacon, or that I’ll give up within the next year.
I just say whatever man. My health markers are sparkly clean and I feel fantastic. Don’t even bring up cholesterol to me lest you want to sit through an hour lecture.

People are wrapped up in their own crap, it’s not worth my time.
On the other hand Ive had one coworker pick up keto because of me and hes stuck to it for 8 months now. Reward enough for me.

(Gale Dacalio) #34

I’m old and kind of snarky… sooo when we got our work physicals back I was reading out loud in front of them all my cholesterol numbers and BMI. it was pretty funny I’m like ohh my total is high but index was low and triglycerrides were very low. Oh and I don’t have to go to the health coach any more because I passed everything… It kind of shut them up… LOL! Hee Hee Hee!

(Tobias Månsson) #35

I’ve been experiencing this my whole life as I’ve never really enjoyed sweets, which always seemed really alien to people. “But it so good!”

What really fascinates me is that the way @lostinyonkers described it, it sound just like what I’ve experienced at parties when people must insist I have a another beer or drink.

To not want a drink or a sweet really seems to trigger something in a lot of people.

(Allie) #36

I just get “of course you won’t have any of this” comments which is fine, although one person did once buy me an avocado as he was buying cakes for everyone else! <3

(Randy) #37

[quote=“siobhan, post:33, topic:22735, full:true”] they still bother me occasionally, tell me I’m going to drop dead from a heart attack from eating all the bacon
[/quote]

While at the same time tying to get you to eat ice cream and all the other carby crap their insulin rollercoaster force them to constantly eat.

Unreal.

#38

Food pushers can be frustrating! Some people genuinely believe that if speciality foods are not being consumed, no fun is being had! “But…but…it’s THESE biscuits that you MUST eat, or you are missing out on the WHOLE experience!” I suspect those folks have emotionally equated fun to food, which is part of why they overeat too—more food clearly equals more fun. For me, I tend to shy away from explaining myself to others when dining (thanks to years of being vegetarian before LCHF), so I just answer that “I’m not very hungry” or that “I don’t want any” when people push food. Most will let accept those answers better than “I’m trying to avoid sugar” or “I am eating low-carb.”

#39

This sounds so familiar, in fact, all of these posts are something I can relate to, been there done that sort of confrontational dance before!

As @LizinLowell said, it highlights their own guilty feelings and so they attack, wanting to bring you into the gang of diabetes groupies, “UGH” is right.

Thankfully for me, I am so autonomous being a home health nurse that I seldom have this issue now, thank God. But at the last meeting we had, I arrived and our manager said, “There are donuts and muffins and coffee everyone, help yourself!” At least the coffee was pretty good. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

As it is now, I ride around all day with my water and sea salt and break my fast most days sometime after 4 PM with barely any hunger. If I do, it’s usually because I didn’t drink enough or take enough salt. Easy fix.

I feel sorry for all the others who are carb burners and get so tired, upset and desperate because of hunger. They struggle to find some time to stuff another cookie or sandwich or chips or “healthy fruit” down their gullets to keep up the energy while driving from one client to the next :frowning:

This is my sentiment exactly…think I may use this one. I’ve always been pretty blunt and if you aren’t they don’t get it.

(Clare) #40

This is it in a nutshell. It’s just like when you quit smoking and your pals who haven’t quit seem to consider it their duty to screw up your willpower. Your success and strength makes their own sense of their lack of resolve ache like a sore tooth.

It’s mostly subconscious but that doesn’t make it any less irritating.