It may help to think of all the men out there that would be gawking over you should they happen to walk in!

Think of the lack of thought involved in this one thing most of us have done for our entire lives. Zoning out on a couch and cramming pointless calories down our collective gullets. This behavior is grossly abnormal, but is considered normal today. I have a friend who CANNOT eat his dinner unless he's in front of the tube! The sad fact is, when an alcoholic chooses not to drink, he tends to lose his drinking buddies...

I had lunch with a friend who commented on my food choices the other day. Finally, I told him that he has no idea how my body reacts to certain foods and that if he wanted to eat lunch again that he should mind his own business. I told him that if I went back to eating the way he did, I would start binging on wine and frozen pizzas again. Choice, for me, was not involved!...as a friend, would he really want me to be an alcoholic heading for diabetes or worse and lead a shorter life? Since then we talk about other things and everything is fine and dandy. I don't have time to waste with negativity. If someone at work makes a comment for not eating one of their franken food chemical ring-dings, I just say "no thanks". I just don't care what other people think of whatever I eat and that's a fact!

I'm not trying to be harsh or uncaring...I guess I just don't understand why people care about what others think of them. I hope you find your voice in this tricky family web and that you will be respected for who you are, a woman who is mindful and actually gives some thought to what she puts in her body, not what they need for you to be. Change is extremely scary to some people, me included! They need to grow up.

I think that smile and nod idea isn't a bad idea either...think I'll try that next time, sure beats wasting valuable words on the deaf!

Something interesting happened to me yesterday. I was at a social function at work in a nice restaurant. Even being thin, I make it a rule not eat pasta more then once a week. I skipped the pasta and settled for a large salad. At least three different times, my co-workers admonished me to eat more. Funny, but when I was heavy...no criticism, but now...all the time!

If you have the self control to pull it off, theres always the old beer trick. When I used to hit parties in my younger days, I would walk around with a mostly full glass of beer, no one ever offered me a drink, and I drank very little if any. It works because ppl assume your drinking if you have a drink in your hand...

Same could apply here.... IF you have the self control to pull it off.

Great idea! As for self control...you don't stay thin (111 lbs) since 1999 for nothing. I might try that. By the way, it was pasta and starch, not sweets or junk food that got me fat in the first place. I know 148 lbs is not that fat, but for a 5'3" person like me, it was.