why do people eat so BADLY??
I just watched my sister eat an enormous bowl of ice cream for breakfast (BREAKFAST!!!) followed by a greasy cheese roll. I see people at the mall eating huge plates of fried chicken and enormous milkshakes at 3 pm. My brother will often order a large pizza at midnight. I've gotten so used to balancing food groups and eliminating junk food that it's unfathomable to me how they can do it.
I realise that it's none of my business; that I need to be proud of myself for my own attention to health and keep up the good work, and that I need to let others do what they will. I also know this topic has probably been posted before in a variety of incarnations, but I guess I just needed to rant and ask if anyone else has noticed and been shocked by similar examples of poor eating. To me, delicious means healthy, but obviously not to everyone!
I don't pay a lot of attention to what strangers eat, my problem is when I see the people I care about eating badly. I nearly had to put a gag on myself when I saw that my husband made peanut butter cookies last night. He is obese. He knows it. He has started working out to try to lose and he makes cookies?
Many times they eat badly out of ignorance. After all, you said yourself you ate badly too until you started counting calories. With counting calories also comes a lot of awareness. Why did you eat badly before? Ask yourself that and maybe it'll make things a little more clear.
I also want to point out that even if some foods are bad for you it doesn't mean they don't taste good. I know the effects of the bad and good foods out there (for the most part) and I still crave french fries and pizza and whatnot. I can tell you for the most part it is mainly because I like them.
Finally...to address what Clharr mentioned, her hubby making cookies even though he knows he's obese...everyone is different. Everyone is at a different stage in their lives. Have you never fallen off the wagon? Not everyone has the willpower to stay good always.
I guess what I don't understand is how people can replace healthy foods with these. I eat chocolate or pastries after a healthy meal: I could never eat them as a meal. I think it's fine--healthy, even--to indulge as long as you're giving your body the nutrients it needs, but if you eat 'indulging foods' all the time, it's not.
Some people don't realise how bad they're eating, but honestly, I think some people just don't care. How can they not? What's more important than physical health?
Original Post by valsgoal:
Many times they eat badly out of ignorance. After all, you said yourself you ate badly too until you started counting calories. With counting calories also comes a lot of awareness. Why did you eat badly before? Ask yourself that and maybe it'll make things a little more clear.
I also want to point out that even if some foods are bad for you it doesn't mean they don't taste good. I know the effects of the bad and good foods out there (for the most part) and I still crave french fries and pizza and whatnot. I can tell you for the most part it is mainly because I like them.
Finally...to address what Clharr mentioned, her hubby making cookies even though he knows he's obese...everyone is different. Everyone is at a different stage in their lives. Have you never fallen off the wagon? Not everyone has the willpower to stay good always.
Well said...
I have fallen off the wagon so many times that I keep mattresses around it. It is just harder to watch someone else without saying anything. At least for me it is.
Plus, I wouldn't make a batch of cookies because I know I would eat them all in a day or two. I just buy 1 or 2 cookies. It ends the craving and I won't be eating it for days. That is the mattress. A tumble results in a hundred or so extra calories, not a thousand.
I know he is in a different stage. When I started my new lifestyle, he kept telling me that I didn't have to watch my diet, I just had to exercise. He has watched me lose 20 pounds while he exercises sporadically and loses nothing. He is very frustrated but not ready to really commit to a healthy lifestyle. I know if I say much, he will just get more stubborn. So I watch and bite my tongue.
He is quite supportive of my efforts. That is why he made peanut butter, which I don't like, instead of chocolate chip, which I would pig out on. I just wish there was something I could do to help him.
I love "bad food". Everything you said from the ice cream for breakfast to the pizza at midnight sounds lovely to me. Now, I measure my ice cream and have a large salad before my pizza but I still do it!
I eat healthy and only eat the unhealthy stuff once in a while. This is a lifestyle for me and not a diet so I will never completely give up my pizza but I do have less meat and more veggies on it.
I wish I could be more like you and only want "healthy" food. In the mean time I try to make my bad food at least a little bit healthier.
Valsgal I just had to say you look amazing!
Thanks Leanne!
Clharr-it sounds like we have very similar situations with our hubbys. Um, yours being a bit more considerate when it comes to food than mine. Lol Mine is very good about helping me make time for my exercises so that helps save him from my wrath! 
He makes some very bad choices on how he is approaching trying to lose weight and I will try to mention things but it is hard doing so without that stubborn streak you speak of. I know he isn't ready to make this a lifestyle change either but he does want to lose. He will eat full fat cheeseburgers one day and totally starve himself the next. A full bag of cookies and with a 2-liter of soda and not think much of it. After all, how can something you drink effect your weight that much? It's a much slower process of realization for him and I have to remember that. It is very frustrating but all I can do is offer a healthier alternative at every turn and hope he takes it.
Btw, you had me LMAO at your mattress comments!!!
Yeah, that sounds like my husband. I think the fact that most women have been at least thinking about watching our weight since high school gives us an advantage here. The guys go for so long without weight problems they have a lot of catching up to do. They don't want to accept the fact that they just can't eat like they used to.
Of course a lot of us on CC have gotten VERY involved in healthy eating. I have problems keeping my mouth shut around my mother and daughter too. I feel like a fanatic that is out to save the world from the evils of unhealthy diets!!
*Imagines herself on a pulpit made from salad and fish trying to convert the heathens*
Cheap, fast, and TASTY!
Thats about it....
Original Post by celtic_rose:
Some people don't realise how bad they're eating, but honestly, I think some people just don't care. How can they not? What's more important than physical health?
From the PoV of someone who is never going to be healthy regardless of diet and exercise -- lots of things. :p Friends, family, happiness, having fun, letting go every once in a while....
You're getting healthy and enjoying it and that's fantastic. What other people choose to do with their own lives really shouldn't concern you enough to make you rant about it.
I've only made the muffins and brownies in muffin tins so far but they are incredibly yummy and actually good for you.
I think that most people have not gotten the idea that treats should be a special occasion or a few times a week after eating a normal healthy diet. I can't for the life of me convince my friends that it's better to eat a normal if light dinner when we go out and have drinks. I have the theory that your body can handle a bit of junk and will tend to crave less of it when you've been feeding it the healthy stuff that it's supposed to get.
Which is not to say that I don't enjoy pizza, fried burritos, french fries, cheeseburgers, etc. I just try to make them less regular than whole grains, lean proteins and veggies.
Original Post by assonantal:
Original Post by celtic_rose:
Some people don't realise how bad they're eating, but honestly, I think some people just don't care. How can they not? What's more important than physical health?From the PoV of someone who is never going to be healthy regardless of diet and exercise -- lots of things. :p Friends, family, happiness, having fun, letting go every once in a while....
You're getting healthy and enjoying it and that's fantastic. What other people choose to do with their own lives really shouldn't concern you enough to make you rant about it.
Amen
In my family, healthy eating is only for people trying to lose weight, and if you put too much thought into what you're eating, you're a health nut. Which is a big part of why most of my family is obese.
When I was heavier, it was not because I didn't know any better: I knew eating a solid block of cheddar cheese for dinner was bad for me. I was just lazy and unmotivated. This may sound harsh, but in an age when just about everyone has access to a computer, either at home or through a public library, people who are still ignorant about what they eat are ignorant because they want to be.
I completely understand how you feel... I've cut out many processed foods, and I cook many things myself, so when I see people eating fruit loops for breakfast, deep-fried pizza and hot dogs for lunch, and canned spaghetti with meatballs for dinner, and things like, oh lord - margarine - I become very uncomfortable. ):
I don't understand how people can survive on this kind of food, and why they haven't become sick yet.
assonantal, you're right though--I guess I need to lighten up a bit. I just feel so much better when I eat right and I know other people would too if only they made more effort! hence the fanatic, I guess!! :0 I'll try.
When they don't know what it's doing to them, they just don't care.
He tells me that he wants to get healthy, but yet last night he ate a slice of cheesecake AND a bowl of ice cream for dessert. I tried to hold my tongue but ended up saying something about how unhealthy it was and how he would never lose the weight if he didn't make better choices...and I think I hurt his feelings.
I keep reminding myself that I can't make him want to make the change - he has to be ready.
I just wish I could still eat all that junk without any health-related consequences.... LOL... such is the life of a calorie counter :)
Original Post by katydid22:
It's funny that this topic was posted because I was just battling with my boyfriend over this yesterday. He is really unhappy with his weight, and late last year had lost as much as 25 lbs. but has since fallen off the wagon and gained the weight back.
He tells me that he wants to get healthy, but yet last night he ate a slice of cheesecake AND a bowl of ice cream for dessert. I tried to hold my tongue but ended up saying something about how unhealthy it was and how he would never lose the weight if he didn't make better choices...and I think I hurt his feelings.
I keep reminding myself that I can't make him want to make the change - he has to be ready.
yep - my sister is a prime example of this, too. i try really hard not to nag, but it seems like she is really not trying. i know its something mental in each individual that has to click - you, generally speaking, have to want to help yourself before anyone can help you..
