I have Issues

[UrbanShaman]

Re: I have Issues

It's amazing how threatened people can get over their food. People are at times offended by my unwillingness to eat carbs or processed foods and I'm only in my second week! I've gotten three "it's unhealthy" talks. It's quite frustrating that their are so many misconceptions about this WOE. Some people think that we don't eat anything BUT meat on this diet. Can you imagine? Stick to your guns. You know your decision is right for you and that's the only person it needs to be right for in the end.

[SunnySmile501]

Re: I have Issues

It's amazing how threatened people can get over their food. People are at times offended by my unwillingness to eat carbs or processed foods and I'm only in my second week! I've gotten three "it's unhealthy" talks. It's quite frustrating that their are so many misconceptions about this WOE. Some people think that we don't eat anything BUT meat on this diet. Can you imagine? Stick to your guns. You know your decision is right for you and that's the only person it needs to be right for in the end.

The propaganda that has been spewed and repeated for decades is very hard to overcome. Even with proof in the way we look and our obvious health, people can't see past it.
This is a conversation I had recently in Wal-Mart with a woman that I used to work with, but hadn't seen since I weighed about 260 pounds and walked with quad canes for short distances and used electric carts if I had to walk to shop, etc. I am now cane-free and walk to shop and weigh 176 pounds. She was always a babbler, so you will have to bear with me. She doesn't have to breathe often and you have to jump in to even try to answer her.

She spots me and does a double take and says: "What have you done for yourself!?!? You're so skinny and you look fabulous!! Your skin looks so good, you don't have any wrinkles--have you been tanning? Your complexion looks fabulous--how do you do it??? How did you lose all that weight and didn't get wrinkles, that's why I don't diet--I don't want wrinkles...how much weight have you lost?"

Me: "I've been doing Atkins and I've lost over 100 pounds..."

Without missing a beat, she interrupts and says: "That diet will kill you...you know that don't you?? It will ruin your kidneys and you'll have to go on dialysis. I have a friend that died from doing that diet. Does your doctor know what you're doing?"

I try to explain Atkins and tell her that that is why my skin looks great and I no longer have asthma and how many veggies I eat, but it was lost on her. I asked her how I could look as fabulous as she said I did at first if I am in danger of being at deaths door, but she never backed down. Thankfully, I only see her once in a blue moon and she is not a regular part of my life. I'm sure she is planning what she will wear to my funeral.

Sunny!

[Elizellen]

Re: I have Issues

And the funny think is that had you said something like
'I've given up starchy foods and sugar and am eating more vegetables and exercising' she would have said what a good job you were doing

[soft things]

Re: I have Issues

yeah, i just ridiculed on the way out of work today because i mentioned needing to go grocery shopping. and everyone was like, oh, are you still eating organic? that cost so much money. too expensive for me. blah blah.. people just like to judge because they are uncomfortable with what they don't understand. organic just plain tastes better anyway. i just choc it up to them being party of the brainwashed general public.

[HellOnWheels]

Re: I have Issues

And the funny think is that had you said something like
'I've given up starchy foods and sugar and am eating more vegetables and exercising' she would have said what a good job you were doing

Funny you should mention that, Elizellen...

My dad heavily criticized my older sister about starting on Atkins, but I think it's because -- besides his general cynicism toward everything he hasn't personally experienced -- she offered the urban-legend explanation the rest of us are still trying to correct: "you get to eat all the meat and cheese you want, just no carbs but salad, and you can lose five pounds a week!"

So when he sees less of me at Easter than usual and asks me what I'm doing, I'm prepared to tell him, "I'm eating tons of vegetables, drinking lots of water and avoiding refined sugars and starches." (It's entirely true, after all!) I think I'll wait until Christmas -- when I hope to be under 200 -- before I tell him I owe my success to the [legitimate] Atkins Diet!