[Myst]

So I work in an office. Im, 21 yrs old, 4'11 (im petite i know) and weigh 93 pounds. I eat constantly (small healthy meals, but on occasion some chocolate there) as I cant fit a large amount of food all at once. I dont exercise at all.

I just find it so annoying, that my coworkers feel the need to tell me that I should exercise. Just last week they told me im 'unhealthy'. Its just heaps annoying that they feel that they're healthier than thou just because they're following the latest diet they got from Cosmo magazine or Men's health.

Then they'll list of the calories, carbs bla bla they feel i should eat? Omg, start telling me that when you graduate from university with a medical degree. Not when your high-school dropout-personal-trainer tells you to.

Its like ALL the time. If by chance, I happen to have bought a choc muffin or baked goods to treat myslef, they go on and on. Something along the lines of "with what you eat, you should be as big as a house by now". Then the gym talk will follow..

Its so so routine. Its just getting boringly annoying now

Grrr...why can't ppl just leave me alone, let me eat my food. Its my own body, dammit.

I also hate it when people go, oh you're skinny now but wait till you get to my age. I think that's kinda rude, dont you think? They're really saying, 'you're gonna be fat later, haha'

[Nevermind]

You know what? It is much healthier to eat many small meals than few big ones. You might want to update them on that.

Second, you're right. It's simply rude to impose views on somebody who didn't ask for it. If you were 300 pounds and eating like a mad woman, they might have a reason...but as it is they are just jealous.

[Prodigal Princess]

Originally Posted by Myst

Omg, start telling me that when you graduate from university with a medical degree. Not when your high-school dropout-personal-trainer tells you to.

Nice one.

I am naturally petite and I have the exact same problem with my co-workers that you do. However, I do exercise most mornings (just because I find it gives me more energy) and usually eat healthy stuff. But as soon as I grab a biscuit from the kitchen or eat a burger for lunch the comments start. I've been accused of being anorexic or bulimic on a few occasions.

It's so inappropriate. I dont understand why people feel they have the right to comment on my body. God forbid if I commented on what the fat bush pigs in the secretarial bay are eating for lunch.

Unfortunately I dont have any constructive advice to give you because it's something I also have to deal with. However, its important to realise that they are only making these comments because they are jealous. I pity them.

[baker23]

Hi,
I undersatand your concerns, and it really is nobody's business what you decide to eat be it good or bad; it's your choice, but the comments go both ways. For example, my boyfriend is a health nut, and he's is always eating healthy, but of course he doesn't force his eating habits on anyone but me , but anyway, his coworker are always giving him grief because he doesn't eat the junk food they do when they go out for lunch. They also make fun of him because he drinks water . I am not skinny by today's standards, I actually need to loose about 15lbs to not be overlined overweight, but I have a friend who is about 60-70 lbs overweight and she always complains that I'm too skinny, and everytime we go out to lunch she always is trying to get me to eat desserts, and tells me I have a perfect body and to please eat .

[Trialbyfire]

Grazing is the best way to eat. It allows your body to process just enough to keep it at par, without storing excess food which turns into fat.

I will say that being healthy, helps the mind.

*runs away*

[carrotgirl]

Another small, thin (what most people call too skinny) woman here. I have to eat a lot AND exercise a lot if I want to have any curves at all, though when I was younger and still had some baby fat left it wasn't as big a deal.

If you're healthy and happy, just say so and finish your cookies without feeling uncomfortable. People will catch on.

Carrot

[Myst]

Plus you know the other thing that bores me? When people brag about how many minutes they do cardio etc at the gym. I know some people go for health purposes, but in my office most go to the gym cos its the hip new thing and they want to look good by telling people how much they go there.

Then they'll ask me (again) if i go to the gym. Then i'll say 'No". Then they'll be shocked and go "Why the hell not?!"."Its so good for you because <insert their uneducated medical thoughts about the benefits of going to the gym here>".

[redfathom]

IMHO most people don't go to the gym because it's "hip". They go because they want to be healthy and sorry hun, but the gym is good for you. Thin does not always equal healthy. Eating healthy does not always equal healthy, you do need some excercise as well.

However, if this is the lifestyle you choose to live that is your choice. But if they choose to live a lifestyle that includes eating healthy and exercising, that is also their choice.

It sounds like they want what's best for you but you are taking it defensivly and assuming they are trying to rub it in your face, which I don't think are their intentions.

You can tell them that you are happy with your lifestyle and don't want to change it.

[Trialbyfire]

[rant]Okay, I will confess. I hate the gym and find nothing more boring than using the equipment or being in a work-out class unless it's kick-boxing. My preference is to do a combination of yoga/pilates at home, while listening to whatever music I choose and also walking, blading, swimming, etc. for cardio.

Part of what I hate about the gym is people staring, whether male or female. While this doesn't bother me on a daily basis because I also people watch, working out is such a personal thing. If you go to the gym, do it for your health v. rudely staring at other people. [/rant over]

[Sum1'sGot2RepThe530]

Myst: tell those people to f-off and mind their own business. Literally. They're just jealous a-holes.

[electric_sheep]

I bump into gym/exercise/health obsessed people every now and then, so I do sort of know what you mean. Honestly, I think the entire country is heading towards a mass, national dysfuntionality with regards to food and body image. We have really become quite obsessed. It's epitomized by the two extremes that seem so prominent in the US today... obesity, inactivity, and total obsession with food, counter-balanced by the health obsessed and the "skinny" obsessed.

I live near a small, local college and man... there were no where near as many overweight young people when I was in college. So, the national obsession is not without reason.

Also, the national "average" is now so far away from what is considered the national "ideal" that tension is almost inevitable. The "ideal" has yet to catch up with the reality on the ground. I'd love it if the "ideal" would shift back to what it was in the 50's even... when our country supposedly embraced a more realistic and fuller figured look:
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...lyn_monroe.jpg
http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/covergall...004_774_lg.jpg

Frankly, I don't see many people walking around that look that good nowadays.

You have girls starving themselves to be skinny, and other people celebrating "fatness" and being almost antagonistic to skinny people. My mom is skinny and she says she gets nasty looks all the time from overweight women.

Each side sort of feeds off the other... just like the cultural wars have been fanned by the trend in politically charged news shows like The O'Reiley Factor.

I do think the root of the obsession is the widening gulf between the national "ideal" and the "reality" of our expanding waistlines.

I was never one to really voice my opinions about exercise or nutrition if I felt they were uninvited, but I admit I've become more interested in the subject as it's become more clear my girlfriend and I have dissimilar lifestyle habits, and the dissimilarity is threatening our relationship. I guess I'm just a product of this culture, and it's hard to undo 20 something years of socialization. I'd be perfectly happy dating Marlyn Monroe, though. Isn't that open minded of me?

[blind_otter]

Originally Posted by Trialbyfire

[rant]Okay, I will confess. I hate the gym and find nothing more boring than using the equipment or being in a work-out class unless it's kick-boxing. My preference is to do a combination of yoga/pilates at home, while listening to whatever music I choose and also walking, blading, swimming, etc. for cardio.

Part of what I hate about the gym is people staring, whether male or female. While this doesn't bother me on a daily basis because I also people watch, working out is such a personal thing. If you go to the gym, do it for your health v. rudely staring at other people. [/rant over]

TBF, I agree with you 100%. I hate the gym. I went like a maniac for some years when I was younger, and it just grosses me out. It's like you're eating other people's sweat. I mean, everyone is sweating heavily in there. The sweat has to evaporate off the large number of bodies packed into that space.

I also prefer to practice yoga or pilates by myself.

I hate to say it, but growing up I never knew anyone who went to the gym. My parents didn't exercise recreationally.

[electric_sheep]

I always hated gym people too. I joined one for the first time about a year or two ago so I could go with my girlfriend.

There is the inevitable people watching, but... to a certain degree this is understandable. There simply isn't anything else to do, and you aren't going anywhere, unlike when running outside, and the body builder guys have to look at SOMEthing when they are waiting between sets.

I used to really dislike these body builder guys, who I assumed were all egotistical a-holes with attitudes. Then I started talking to them, and to my surprise a lot of them are actually quite intelligent and nice. The whole "attitude" thing I was perceiving was completely a fabrication of my own mind. I just assumed big buff guys must have attitudes (much like a lot of guys assume an attractive girl must have an attitude), so I projected that onto them, when in fact most of them have no attitude at all.

So, being someone who used to HATE gym people and the gym, I can now say that a lot of it was in my head.

A well ventilated gym shouldn't be a nasty environment to be in, though I do occasionally walk by someone who stinks. With all the crap in the environment these days... car fumes, pollution, and everything else, it's arguably better than exercising outside (sadly). Also, my allergies prevent me from exercising outside for several months a year.

Anyway... I agree though, there is nothing like being in nature. I have a 5 mile run I do that takes me through a local park area, and I pass by black bears, bison, a Japanese tea garden, and wild turkey, which is totally awesome.

[luvmy2ns]

Originally Posted by Myst

I also hate it when people go, oh you're skinny now but wait till you get to my age. I think that's kinda rude, dont you think? They're really saying, 'you're gonna be fat later, haha'

Just tell 'em, "Sucks to be you then, huh? My metabolism hasn't slowed down yet 'cause I'm still young."

They're just hatin' on you. Ignore the b's.

[electric_sheep]

Originally Posted by blind_otter

I also prefer to practice yoga or pilates by myself.

There is a Yoga class that crashes my local cafe a couple of days a week, and my girlfriend and I find them far more preposterous than the gym people. We noticed they seem to place much emphasis on fashion. They all have cute California/hippie looking Yoga outfits, which just cracks us up because it's so stereotypical.

Of course, I'm sure these are nice people too.


The thing is... for some people, the gym, or yoga classes, are just as much a social event as anything else. For others, they just want to go and that's it.