The war is on. You’re at your family get together or at some friends social function. They don’t know you’re on a diet and when you inform them of this sometimes they lose it and a war starts. There’s no need for this and you do have ways to avoid such hassles and we’ll look at some.
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People, Food, And Self Esteem
Some cultures take offense if you don’t eat everything on your plate. Get togethers are special occasions and it’s a sense of pride to pile on a guest’s plate as much food as possible.
It’s worse for kids. Some cultures celebrate fat kids. The fatter your kid is, the more prestige you have. It shows that you’re providing for your family and grandparents like to brag about how fat their grandkids are.
Women have it worse when they come from cultures that prize fat women. It’s attractive to many men and like with the kids, it’s a sign of prestige.
All this is wrong and it gets deadly when practiced in the United States.
In the U.S., getting fat is so easy you don’t even have to try. Just the television commercials for those triple-decker bacon cheese hamburgers is enough for a person to put on the pounds by default. Combine that with risky cultural or social eating habits and you have a recipe for fat disaster.
Stand Your Ground
Let’s say you’ve adopted a new dietary regimen. You’ll need to inform your friends and family so that they’ll understand you’re taking on a healthier lifestyle. This is where you separate the chaff from the wheat when it comes to those who really care for you.
Our mothers love to feed us. They love it when they make your favorite dishes and you are expected to eat as much as they dish out and make all kinds of googly faces showing how much you love it. This alone is the ruin of a guy trying to lose the fat. He’s so worried that he’ll upset his mother that he doesn’t think twice about what he’s doing.
It’s incredible how stupid some people can be. They’re more interested in their personal pride than in your chosen route to better health. Dad may hit the roof if you don’t gobble down Mom’s favorite dish. He knows there will be no living with her if you don’t greed up on her food. He wants peace in the house and making Mom happy is the only way to do it.
The same goes for your own home. A husband whose wife feels like she can only keep him if she cooks non-stop or a husband who wants his wife all plump and juicy regardless of the unhealthy outcomes is far too common a problem.
This is where you have to stand your ground. Announce as nicely as you can that you love their cuisine but you can’t eat as much of it or some of it due to calories or ingredients that go against doctors orders. Prepare for a fight though. Telling your mother or wife or friend there’s something in their food that is detrimental to your health is like using a super soaker filled with poison pointed straight at them.
They’ll twist and turn and curse and writhe around like spoiled brats, but in the end, if they love you they will understand.
If they don’t and a schism arises, keep cool and go on about your life. If they don’t cool down later, then you’ll know they didn’t have respect for your life choices and betterment, only their personal and social esteem.
You have to make it clear that you’re moving on to a healthier lifestyle and that it’s torture not to eat the portions or types of food. Pour on the act that your life will be misery without their food, but you’ve got to follow doctor’s orders. If this doesn’t work, it’s time for the big guns.
Put Your Foot Down
If all else fails with family and friends and your new dietary lifestyle, then you’ll have to put your foot down. Do they want you alive and well or dead or sick? Tell them it’s not personal, it’s a matter of medical regimen.
You have to emphasize that your family won’t do well with you in a hospital or dead. If they still can’t comprehend all this, you have to put that big foot down and state what you’re going to do, come-what-may.
Don’t Buckle Under Pressure
If after you’ve put your foot down your friends or family still won’t comply or understand then you’ll have to make one of those life’s tough decisions. Sibling rivalry can arise if you don’t eat all of Mom’s macaroni and cheese with crumb stuff on the top. Taking advantage of the situation, an unscrupulous brother or sister bent on gaining Mom’s favor might balk at you and cozy up to Mom to siphon off of her dismay.
Yes, people will do all sorts of underhanded stuff, even family.
Remember, it’s your life and you need to take the reigns and go in the direction for better health and well being.
If such changes in your dietary lifestyle bring about so much anxiety, then you’ll just have to buck up and walk off the pain. In the short and long term, you find out it was the sane and responsible decision.
They Think You Don’t Love Them Anymore
Yes, people can be this silly and childish. Your choice to turn down a huge portion of food or a favorite dish will sometimes have the cook fall apart thinking that you don’t love them anymore.
This is where most people wanting to diet right fall apart. Mom or the wife whining and crying can get to you after a while. They know they’re being selfish and emotional and that they’re using such a response as a means of controlling you. Men and women will use their cooking as a control mechanism. It’s as old as eating itself.
When this type of response arises, you’ll have to go for broke and put an end to it. Let them do the pouting. In a few weeks or months when you stroll in at the family reunion or the neighborhood picnic and you look like you’re 20 years younger and buff, you’ll have them right where you want them.
People will ask how you did it and you can proudly say you took on a healthy dieting regimen and stuck to it.
The respect and admiration will shower over you. You’ll feel a sense of overwhelming accomplishment. You’ll be proud to look at yourself in the mirror, and you’ll feel like a kid again.
The Bottom Line
The bottom line to all this is that choosing a new dietary regimen calls for courage and diligence. Determination and perseverance are also the qualities you’ll need. As time goes by and you’re watching those excess pounds disappear and your shoulders are straight and broad and your butt looks like it should win an Olympic medal, you’ll realize that you made the right decisions to eat smart and healthy.
Only you can take care of yourself and eating right is the first start, probably a tie with being more active. Don’t let others get under your skin and deter you from your goals. In the end, you’ll either be happy and healthy in life or sick and miserable. Just changing how, when, and what you eat can be miraculous for your overall well being and you’ll have you to thank for it.
