How do you compare to your friends and family?

LadyTalulah · February 2015

On how health-concious you are? I'm not at all talking about size here, you can be the biggest one of your friends yet still be the one aiming to lose the weight and be the healthiest.
It's just that over a year ago I really started watching what I eat / how much I eat and incorporating the gym into my daily routine. Now, I feel like the black sheep. Obviously not with my gym friends, but with everyone I knew before I chose the healthy lifestyle.
It's not a bad thing, but I feel like I've made so many "discoveries" about how important it is to take care of your body and I want to share it with them but they show zero interest in it. I think I just realized how unhealthy and uneducated the "average" person is. (Is that a terrible thing to say??)
Anyways, have you noticed a change on how you view your friends and families diets? Obviously it's not about judging them or making them out to be inferior, just realizing that you don't have the same definition of what a "normal" diet looks like anymore. (Pizza 4 nights in a row?! No thank you!)

Sued0nim · February 2015

do not become a ski-bore!

When people go skiing for the first time - they come back all enthused and tell everybody all about it as often as possible

do not do the same with your 'healthy choices' - they are yours and yours alone and no other bugger is interested in the slightest

it is basically none of your business

yesimpson · February 2015

My dad used to be a semi-professional cyclist, so me and him are quite on the same page. My mother has no interest in exercise other than walking and very occasionally swimming. Most of my friends are gym-goers but are not as interested as I am - they see it as a necessary evil, not a hobby. I try to keep my chatter on the subject to a minimum unless they specifically ask me a question or the topic naturally comes up in conversation. Quite a few of them are doing the couch to 5k plan at the moment so we do talk about fitness and health from time to time.

azulvioleta6 · February 2015

Most of my friends are pretty health-conscious in one way or another. I have friends who are fitness instructors, weight lifters, martial-arts practitioners, dancers, hikers/climbers, etc. Most of these are people I have known since before I gained and lost weight.

I don't have any friends who have to eat with the kind of strictness that I do, but that's OK. Nobody I know is living on pizza, smoking or otherwise living an extremely unhealthy lifestyle. I do have friends who drink a lot of expensive tequila.

My parents eat incredibly well and are extraordinarily active for their age. Nobody in my family is average--they certainly don't need my help to figure out how to live a healthy life.

cincysweetheart · February 2015

I'm probably the most health-conscious of my family right now… Key word being conscious. I have one sister who generally leads a healthy lifestyle. She lost a bunch of weight herself and is maintaining. But it's pretty much second nature for her right now… I don't know how "conscious" she is about it.

Of my friends… Well that's hard to say. My friends all live quite a ways away from me… So I don't know the ins and outs of their daily diet and activity levels. I'm probably the most out of my co-workers though.

I don't say anything about it though unless someone asks… like seriously asks. It's none of my business about their choices. Besides… who the hell am I to judge? I certainly spent my own fair share of time not giving a d@mn.

gettinleanin2015 · February 2015

I'm certainly one of the most active of my friends, however as we're all getting older we all seem to be stepping it up a notch!

Family-wise, perversely I come from a long line of naturally slim people. IKNOWRITE. So whilst I'm by far the most active, I'm not the slimmest by long stretch.

Someone neatly used the term 'ski-bore' earlier - I can absolutely see how tempting it is to exclaim and quietly marvel at someone else's choices, but frankly, it's their body and their decision. Unless someone a) asks you for help or b) is at the stage where you need to rugby tackle them to the ground, leave them be. You often have to fight your own way out of your troubles.

Wiseandcurious · February 2015

I don't even go there. These days everybody is health-conscious or they think they are. I probably have more health-obsessed friends than overweight ones. Whatever rocks their boat, I don't question their decisions or lifestyle.

As far as immediate family is concerned, I cook for them so I am happy about their diet - we've always eaten really well health-wise, I just used to eat a lot more of it than they do

Lounmoun · February 2015

LadyTalulah wrote: »

Anyways, have you noticed a change on how you view your friends and families diets?

No. I don't really think about other people's diets unless I am cooking for them. I really eat the same foods I did before. Other people have different needs and reasons for eating the way they do that aren't the same as mine.

abatonfan · February 2015

Due to chronic medical conditions, I have to be really conscious about what I eat (taking insulin for what I think is 100g of carbs when it is 10g of carbs will most likely kill me), while the rest of the family does not give a fat rat's behind of what they're eating. I have made a few "healthy" things for my family (think along the line of greek yogurt pancakes -yummy), and my sisters tend to shove the food back into my face and say they hate my "healthy junk."

The main thing that annoys me is that my mother wants to lose weight, I showed her MFP, she never bothers to log on and log anything, and then she complains that she cut out all soda from her diet and hasn't lost a pound. Yesterday, she told me that she wanted to get back to trying to lose weight, and, surprisingly, she liked the idea of me cooking for her (I'll just make double of what meals I make for myself), me weighing everything out on her plate, and then logging it. Unless I never move out and live with my parents forever (NOOOO!!!), I know that me doing everything for her might not work out in the long-run until she learns how to fend for herself.

Need2Exerc1se · February 2015

My family is really close. I comment on their diets and lack of exercise often (we all comment on everything). Some of my family considers me a 'health nut'. My daughters are health conscious, but my siblings, parents and in-laws are pretty clueless. They often roll their eyes at me, but when they have a question they always come to me. I'm okay with it.

As for friends, I never comment on their diet or lifestyle unless asked.

Jolinia · February 2015

I am more health conscious than most of my family because I have to be. I don't do chubby like some of them, I go straight to morbid obesity, do not pass pleasantly plump, do not collect modest muffintop.

My sister and brother in law blow me out of the water, though. They're biking, hiking, healthy eating fiends. Although they have a sweet tooth, they don't have moderation issues, so they thoroughly enjoy both good foods and good chocolate.

NoelFigart1 · February 2015

My immediate genetic relatives are all health conscious. I learned to eat my veggies and get plenty of exercise as a child. My parents walk a couple of miles every day in addition to the pretty heavy duty gardening and landscaping my mother and father do as a hobby. My brother likes weights, bodyweight work and anything to do with being out on the water.

We all also have weight problems. That they are not worse than they are is probably due to our habits.

So I win the rotten genetics lottery in terms of tendency to being lean.

It takes a lot of booze for my husband to gain weight. He's naturally on the lean side. Our son is somewhere in the middle, but I've warned him that good eating and exercise habits will serve him well.

I don't care how other people eat. It's none of my business.

lemurcat12 · February 2015

On food stuff, I'm not at all the most nutrition conscious or food conscious, but people (friends and family) I know are a weird mix of foodies and people with various food-related things (maybe just being a vegetarian, but also lots are into local food, gardening, trying new things, which I am too) or special diets, which I'm not so much. I'm one of the lower maintenance ones with respect to restaurant choice and the like (so long as it's a good restaurant).

On exercise stuff, I have multiple groups of friends, and some aren't into it at all and that's fine, we talk about/do other things, but I'm also forming a community with some into my same activity interests and I think that's important long-term. I have still other friends and family who are into being active, but not the same specific things I am.

And no, I haven't changed how I feel about other people's diets at all. One background for me, though, is that I was really into nutrition and started eating in a way I considered "healthy" around 15 years ago, and maintained an interest even after I fell into some kind of "natural" offshoot of that (got super interested in local foods and gardening) and even after I regained the weight, and for me the interest in nutrition has always had more of a foodie/restaurants/cooking side to it than merely health-specific one. I don't bore people with this if they aren't interested or judge if their main food interests are ones I don't share, but it does mean that I didn't change much once I got fitness focused again and started losing weight.

mvexplorer · February 2015

Jolinia wrote: »

I am more health conscious than most of my family because I have to be. I don't do chubby like some of them, I go straight to morbid obesity, do not pass pleasantly plump, do not collect modest muffin top.

Hahaha you made me chuckle.

MsBeverleyH · February 2015

For me, friends/family/co-workers tend to make comments about "how healthy I am eating" and essentially tease and pick on me for it. But if they sit down and eat half a cake, nobody says a word. It can be pretty frustrating, but I'm going to continue doing what I do. I dislike going to my parents' house because they eat extremely unhealthy compared to me, and since I'm only there for short amounts of time, I feel guilty "buying my own food" and offending them.

Some are healthier than others, but as aforementioned, I try to keep (most) of it to myself. I'll only speak up if someone is criticizing me and/or saying something about diet/nutrition/exercise that I know to be false. Ex: "Eggs cause high cholesterol". (NO. They do not.)

Keep on discovering.

Codilee87 · February 2015

My whole family are either boxers or boxing coaches so they are fully aware of how they Should eat (whether they do is another matter) but my friends tend to be entirely clueless about healthy food choices - they are body by vii fans, which I suppose can be helpful but they always gain the weight back as soon as they start eating normally. They never try to actually learn long-term healthy habits and self-control, its all about getting to the goal and then they figure they don't have to work for it anymore. And as far as exercise goes, they always go hard the first week or two then burn out and complain that it never works.

I just try to nudge them in smarter directions when they ask and avoid criticizing at all costs because I know its not my place and they won't listen anyway lol

I_Will_End_You · February 2015

I'm probably the most health conscience in my family. I have a sister who tries, but she seems to believe everything she reads on Facebook about "clean eating" and everything she should avoid. She doesn't science. And her attempts usually fail.

ShibaEars · February 2015

I am trying the hardest to be healthy, I'd say. No one else in my family has any desire to learn about proper nutrition. My mom, dad and brother all try to be active, with varying degrees of success. My mom and several aunts would rather try every fad diet there is than count calories (it's "too hard"). My friends like to start new diets/exercise regimes but they rarely last more than a week. I guess I wouldn't care about their unhealthy habits so much, but my mom & friends complain to me about how they're gaining weight.

I wish I had people in my life that liked to be more active! I'd like to go on vacations to places to go hiking or something active like that, but they'd all rather just go sit on a beach. I did finally say screw it and just my dog and I went on a weekend hiking trip, but it would be nice to have someone else to go with.

SuggaD · February 2015

LadyTalulah wrote: »

On how health-concious you are? I'm not at all talking about size here, you can be the biggest one of your friends yet still be the one aiming to lose the weight and be the healthiest.
It's just that over a year ago I really started watching what I eat / how much I eat and incorporating the gym into my daily routine. Now, I feel like the black sheep. Obviously not with my gym friends, but with everyone I knew before I chose the healthy lifestyle.
It's not a bad thing, but I feel like I've made so many "discoveries" about how important it is to take care of your body and I want to share it with them but they show zero interest in it. I think I just realized how unhealthy and uneducated the "average" person is. (Is that a terrible thing to say??)
Anyways, have you noticed a change on how you view your friends and families diets? Obviously it's not about judging them or making them out to be inferior, just realizing that you don't have the same definition of what a "normal" diet looks like anymore. (Pizza 4 nights in a row?! No thank you!)

Yes. With my family, I make healthy stuff when I do the cooking. They usually love it. But when we eat out, I just do my thing and let them do theirs and don't comment on what they order. It is hard though to bite my tongue. Same for friends. And I went out and made a lot of new friends who are health conscious like me.

estitom · February 2015

I'm about average. My family has always been pretty average, and my friends are like me: healthy on most days, try to exercise every week, struggle on the weekends.

Please OP, don't be(come) someone who talks about your "discoveries" with everyone and tell them about their unhealthy choices. That's really rude. Just focus on you.

wizzybeth · February 2015

I really don't pay attention. Every once in a while my bff since age 9 and I discuss losing weight and we make fun of our mutual bad habits with eating. Honestly I've tried losing weight almost as often as she's tried to quit smoking. I don't think she believes I'll really stick with it this time...lol. but when she tells me what she eats I cringe...but it's her choice and her journey...and I have mine.

How do you compare to your friends and family?

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