Living with an unhealthy eater

I am shocked at how many people are having visceral reactions to my desire to eliminate junk foods from my home. This speaks to the disordered way we deal with health and food in our society.

My husband is fully on board with clean eating. We occasionally indulge in sweets out of the house. Hell there are 4 (yes FOUR!) fast food places across the street from our apartments. There are dozens more within a 2 mile radius as we live in a dense urban area. Getting some sugary treats is not complicated or difficult or inconvenient. Burgerville isn't going to cut me off if I should want to spend my money there (or dairy queen or Baskin Robbins or Starbucks or Shair's Pies or...well you get the idea).

I choose to make my home a sanctuary of health. Here I can relax and enjoy the plethora of foods that won't kill me. It is not necessary for me to load up on chemical, gmo, HFCS, transfat laden foods in my own home.

I also don't let people use illicit drugs in my home (family included) or smoke cigarettes or other tobacco products. I also don't permit racial slurs be used within our walls.

Shocked! I am SHOCKED!

I am shocked at how many people are having visceral reactions to my desire to eliminate junk foods from my home. This speaks to the disordered way we deal with health and food in our society.

My husband is fully on board with clean eating. We occasionally indulge in sweets out of the house. Hell there are 4 (yes FOUR!) fast food places across the street from our apartments. There are dozens more within a 2 mile radius as we live in a dense urban area. Getting some sugary treats is not complicated or difficult or inconvenient. Burgerville isn't going to cut me off if I should want to spend my money there (or dairy queen or Baskin Robbins or Starbucks or Shair's Pies or...well you get the idea).

I choose to make my home a sanctuary of health. Here I can relax and enjoy the plethora of foods that won't kill me. It is not necessary for me to load up on chemical, gmo, HFCS, transfat laden foods in my own home.

I also don't let people use illicit drugs in my home (family included) or smoke cigarettes or other tobacco products. I also don't permit racial slurs be used within our walls.

I say each to their own, but as someone who doesn't buy into the concept of clean eating (it's not for me, I'd prefer to be balanced between whats good for me, whats handy and what I like but as I say each to their own and I do see the appeal)

I *am* a little offended that you liken that to drug use, smoking and racism. It's absolutely not the same. Not at all.I think that view is far too black and white, and there is a lot of grey here for most of us. I'm grey here - i'm not a druggie or a racist or a smoker, but I like the odd 'dirty' food.

I don't think the categorisation helps your case - and it's one of the reason 'clean' eaters do get attacked on here - that superiority.

I wonder where you come down on the whole "food addict" thing.

Were you here when there were many individuals that stated that being "addicted" to food is the same thing as narcotics? (yes, absolutely!)

I am shocked at how many people are having visceral reactions to my desire to eliminate junk foods from my home. This speaks to the disordered way we deal with health and food in our society.

My husband is fully on board with clean eating. We occasionally indulge in sweets out of the house. Hell there are 4 (yes FOUR!) fast food places across the street from our apartments. There are dozens more within a 2 mile radius as we live in a dense urban area. Getting some sugary treats is not complicated or difficult or inconvenient. Burgerville isn't going to cut me off if I should want to spend my money there (or dairy queen or Baskin Robbins or Starbucks or Shair's Pies or...well you get the idea).

I choose to make my home a sanctuary of health. Here I can relax and enjoy the plethora of foods that won't kill me. It is not necessary for me to load up on chemical, gmo, HFCS, transfat laden foods in my own home.

I also don't let people use illicit drugs in my home (family included) or smoke cigarettes or other tobacco products. I also don't permit racial slurs be used within our walls.

I say each to their own, but as someone who doesn't buy into the concept of clean eating (it's not for me, I'd prefer to be balanced between whats good for me, whats handy and what I like but as I say each to their own and I do see the appeal)

I *am* a little offended that you liken that to drug use, smoking and racism. It's absolutely not the same. Not at all.I think that view is far too black and white, and there is a lot of grey here for most of us. I'm grey here - i'm not a druggie or a racist or a smoker, but I like the odd 'dirty' food.

I don't think the categorisation helps your case - and it's one of the reason 'clean' eaters do get attacked on here - that superiority.

I wonder where you come down on the whole "food addict" thing.

Were you here when there were many individuals that stated that being "addicted" to food is the same thing as narcotics? (yes, absolutely!)

food addiction and clean eating vs 'dirty' (hate that term, I'd prefer to call it 'normal' but it's not normal for everyone) are NOT the same argument and it's ridiculous to claim that they are.

I am shocked at how many people are having visceral reactions to my desire to eliminate junk foods from my home. This speaks to the disordered way we deal with health and food in our society.
....
I also don't let people use illicit drugs in my home (family included) or smoke cigarettes or other tobacco products. I also don't permit racial slurs be used within our walls.

It's not your desire to eliminate foods from your home. It's your desire to force others to do it. if your husband also agrees and also wants it, that's great, but I'm pretty sure you started off all "I am woman, hear me roarz, that man don't get none here" and THAT is the biggest issue. If you've come to it together - then, meh, to each their own. I'm more of a moderation sort, but I do lean toward trying to have more fresh fruits and vegetables in the home. But, if the husband wants doughnuts, that's his choice and he can - why? because he's an adult. Just because I don't want one, doesn't mean he can't bring them in the house.

Illicit/illegal drugs are really quite different than foods. And smoke can add odor and do damage that way. So they aren't actually equivalent comparisons at all.

And really - did you just compare banning certain foods to banning racial slurs?

There really are no words for that one.

I think it's absolutely ridiculous that someone mentions that she doesn't let her husband keep junk in the house, and in another comment specifically mentions that if she's alone she will binge eat (which is actually considered an eating disorder), and instead of being shown love and support she is ripped a new a-hole. Instead of people talking to her and trying to encourage her to find a happy medium she is torn into and ridiculed because she made a choice in her house (that her husband is obviously okay with because he supports her, not because he's whipped) that helped her with the binge-eating problem she was having. People make comments about how she must not have children, or how her husband will end up being fat when she already said that he is now eating healthier. How absolutely demeaning and presumptuous is that?

I'm absolutely put off by the comments in this thread and am shocked at the lack of love and support. We are all here together to help reach our goals and help our lives be better. It's not about keeping a perfect public diary so that everyone can bask in your ability to stay disciplined. It's about supporting each other -- something I'm seeing a HUGE lack of in this post.

The lovely miss Bloom has said it better than I could, so to you... I'm just going to say.

Also... More shock!!

SHOCKED!

I am shocked at how many people are having visceral reactions to my desire to eliminate junk foods from my home. This speaks to the disordered way we deal with health and food in our society.

My husband is fully on board with clean eating. We occasionally indulge in sweets out of the house. Hell there are 4 (yes FOUR!) fast food places across the street from our apartments. There are dozens more within a 2 mile radius as we live in a dense urban area. Getting some sugary treats is not complicated or difficult or inconvenient. Burgerville isn't going to cut me off if I should want to spend my money there (or dairy queen or Baskin Robbins or Starbucks or Shair's Pies or...well you get the idea).

I choose to make my home a sanctuary of health. Here I can relax and enjoy the plethora of foods that won't kill me. It is not necessary for me to load up on chemical, gmo, HFCS, transfat laden foods in my own home.

Eh, I feel like people are really not giving your husband enough credit here. I assume he is a strong, confident adult male who could also "put his foot down" if necessary and this is KIND OF a joint choice. I could be wrong, but that's what I'd assume. I don't know too many men who would just say "oh I'm so sad wifey won't let me have my Oreos, I'm just gonna sit here and cry and never eat them even at work or when I'm away from her...or she will divorce me".

Nah. I don't think he's probably thinking that.

I am shocked at how many people are having visceral reactions to my desire to eliminate junk foods from my home. This speaks to the disordered way we deal with health and food in our society.

My husband is fully on board with clean eating. We occasionally indulge in sweets out of the house. Hell there are 4 (yes FOUR!) fast food places across the street from our apartments. There are dozens more within a 2 mile radius as we live in a dense urban area. Getting some sugary treats is not complicated or difficult or inconvenient. Burgerville isn't going to cut me off if I should want to spend my money there (or dairy queen or Baskin Robbins or Starbucks or Shair's Pies or...well you get the idea).

I choose to make my home a sanctuary of health. Here I can relax and enjoy the plethora of foods that won't kill me. It is not necessary for me to load up on chemical, gmo, HFCS, transfat laden foods in my own home.

I also don't let people use illicit drugs in my home (family included) or smoke cigarettes or other tobacco products. I also don't permit racial slurs be used within our walls.

I say each to their own, but as someone who doesn't buy into the concept of clean eating (it's not for me, I'd prefer to be balanced between whats good for me, whats handy and what I like but as I say each to their own and I do see the appeal)

I *am* a little offended that you liken that to drug use, smoking and racism. It's absolutely not the same. Not at all.I think that view is far too black and white, and there is a lot of grey here for most of us. I'm grey here - i'm not a druggie or a racist or a smoker, but I like the odd 'dirty' food.

I don't think the categorisation helps your case - and it's one of the reason 'clean' eaters do get attacked on here - that superiority.

I wonder where you come down on the whole "food addict" thing.

Were you here when there were many individuals that stated that being "addicted" to food is the same thing as narcotics? (yes, absolutely!)

food addiction and clean eating vs 'dirty' (hate that term, I'd prefer to call it 'normal' but it's not normal for everyone) are NOT the same argument and it's ridiculous to claim that they are.

If food "addiction" is possible (hence my previous comment), someone throwing away a cake due to their addiction is not a "clean" vs. "dirty" eating scenario (regardless of whether that's how you try to spin it).

Note: This is not to imply that is what the poster is claiming occurred in this instance.

The posters claims about 'I choose to make my home a sanctuary of health' etc and citation that her hubby supports clean eating, then goes on to slate everyone who isn't clean eating as being likened to drug users and racists is what i'm reacting to.

Food addiction doesn't enter into it there.

Food addiction I've seen people have and that's different. But still, throwing away someone elses portion of your 'poison' isn't really what I'd call reasonable behaviour.

My boyfriend does the same thing, despite being totally supportive of my weight loss goals. He doesn't need to lose any weight, and even if he did, I wouldn't expect him to change his ways. Some people are just like that.

What I do is simply give him a spot to put all of his junk food items that's out of the way, like a specific cupboard or a corner on the counter, and make him put away the pizza/donuts/fried chicken so that they're not just lying about. If I look into the fridge and I see a pizza box, but then I see my healthy foods next to it, I feel a lot less tempted to grab the pizza.

Over this summer, he and I worked similar hours at the same place and we took lunch together often. I always packed myself a healthy lunch, but he'd conveniently "forget" to pack a lunch and would insist that he needed to go to McDonald's to get food. When this would happen, I'd simply be sure to eat my lunch ahead of time so I'm not hungry anymore and follow him so he could get his greasy, fattening food. He'd sometimes insist that I get something too, so he's not the only one eating, in which case I'd get a bottle of water or something small and relatively not fattening.

It can be a challenge, but you can do it! Just moving things out of your immediate site or eating before he insists on going somewhere unhealthy can do a lot for you to keep you determined and away from bad foods. Good luck!

The only thing you can change is yourself - it sounds trite, but it's true!

My friends eat what they want when we go out, and it doesn't bother me now...but it takes time to form a habit. I used to get "dessert envy" but I just had to remind myself that I had a goal, that I could eat a huge dessert if I wanted but I was choosing not to.

I found that calorie logging, via the MFP app, really helped curb my sugar cravings...scanning something and seeing it take me over my goal was a real motivator to not eat it!

At the end of the day, it's about choice.

The only thing you can change is yourself - it sounds trite, but it's true!

My friends eat what they want when we go out, and it doesn't bother me now...but it takes time to form a habit. I used to get "dessert envy" but I just had to remind myself that I had a goal, that I could eat a huge dessert if I wanted but I was choosing not to.

I found that calorie logging, via the MFP app, really helped curb my sugar cravings...scanning something and seeing it take me over my goal was a real motivator to not eat it!

At the end of the day, it's about choice.

and self control. I don't believe that people have no self control. I believe that everyone has it but it's too hard for some to apply at first so they give up.