I think I have said before I am a 25 year old, recently married, overweight woman. I have been battling my weight for four years now, and I have been winning.
All of my weight loss victories are marked and tagged low carb. I have lost 48 pounds and people do notice. Everyone wants to ask, "Whatever is your secret?". But the second I tell them that I follow Atkins they chalk it up to youthful fad dieting and tell me all of the skeptical anti-Atkins stereotypes. They soapbox and tell me that I will realize the importance of a "good" diet when I get older.
So please tell me, does any one else in this twenty something age bracket have a good way of dealing with these naysayers. I have tried the facts and they never seem to be good enough.
I just want to be taken seriously, like the adult that I am.
Full Version: Take me seriously
| QUOTE (vicalyn @ Sep 20 2007, 11:31 AM) |
| I think I have said before I am a 25 year old, recently married, overweight woman. I have been battling my weight for four years now, and I have been winning. All of my weight loss victories are marked and tagged low carb. I have lost 48 pounds and people do notice. Everyone wants to ask, "Whatever is your secret?". But the second I tell them that I follow Atkins they chalk it up to youthful fad dieting and tell me all of the skeptical anti-Atkins stereotypes. They soapbox and tell me that I will realize the importance of a "good" diet when I get older. So please tell me, does any one else in this twenty something age bracket have a good way of dealing with these naysayers. I have tried the facts and they never seem to be good enough. I just want to be taken seriously, like the adult that I am. |
I don't know if it's so much our age, so much as it's just people don't know what Atkins is and a lot of them don't WANT to know. People in their 30s and 40s and 50s and beyond get similar treatment when they say they're on Atkins. There's a few ways you can approach it:
1. Quit saying "Atkins". People think Atkins is the ultra-strict all cheese, meat, butter, cream, and lard diet. You can say that you lost your weight with a "healthy, low carb way of eating with good fats and plenty of vegetables". It's true. ;-) Or you can call it "modified Atkins" (which isn't really a lie either because we all modify it to some degree). People respond better to "modified Atkins".
2. When they start spouting off all the misconceptions about what Atkins is and attempts to tell them how it really is fail, and they start with that "You'll realize the importance of healthy eating when you're older" stuff, smile, shrug, and say "You're probably right." Everyone likes to be right, so this tends to disarm them and get them off your tail. After all, when you're older and healthy and active due to the good dietary and lifestyle choices you're making NOW, you will probably look back and realize how important that healthy eating really was. ;-)
3. You can always tell them your doctor is REALLY happy with all the progress you've made, and is supportive of you doing Atkins "as long as I make sure to eat plenty of healthy green vegetables".
Don't let the naysayers get you down! And by the way, congrats on your weight loss so far!
Nikki
It's not an age thing - when it comes to the low fat diet , people are sheep
I'm 30 and i have a coworker bashing my diet on a diet all the time, in between bites of her nacho lunchable and the candy bar I soooo wish I could shove up her nose. Mind you, she's 5 foot and 100 lbs if that. I honestly don't get the grains worship that so many people have except that the vegan/vegetarian diet has a 30 year head start and some very expensive Public Relations, courtesy of the food processing companies and Peabrains against the Eating of Tasty Animals
I'm 30 and i have a coworker bashing my diet on a diet all the time, in between bites of her nacho lunchable and the candy bar I soooo wish I could shove up her nose. Mind you, she's 5 foot and 100 lbs if that. I honestly don't get the grains worship that so many people have except that the vegan/vegetarian diet has a 30 year head start and some very expensive Public Relations, courtesy of the food processing companies and Peabrains against the Eating of Tasty Animals
The wise cracks are definitely not age related. The wise cracks are usually made by someone with a 'little' knowledge'. And we all know that a little knowledge is very dangerous!
I'm mid-fifty and I get the same remarks, mostly from what I call the 'Diet Dictocrats'. Theos believe that the diet gods have made them Diet Police and they are commissioned to inform and rescue the poor, ignorant low-carb folks who are destroying their life eating all that bacon, eggs and cheese. Fact is, they wouldn't recognize a healthy diet if it ran over them on a John Deere tractor!
Unless I just feel like toying with one of these 'diet nut-jobs', I just chalk it up to ignorance and do like Nikki and agree with them and go on. But sometimes when folks ask how I lost the weight, I don't tell them a specific plan. I'll say, "for the first time in my life I just started eating 'real food', you know foods that aren't processed and packaged to death.
I respond with vague, generic, nearly unintelligible answers until I see that the interested party is sincere about wanting to know how to change their nutritional life. If they are sincere about learning I begin to give them enough information to entice them into learning more.
The naysayers...a special breed they are, and therefore they must be handled with extreme sarcasm!!!
Ron, aka The Former Donut Junkie
I'm mid-fifty and I get the same remarks, mostly from what I call the 'Diet Dictocrats'. Theos believe that the diet gods have made them Diet Police and they are commissioned to inform and rescue the poor, ignorant low-carb folks who are destroying their life eating all that bacon, eggs and cheese. Fact is, they wouldn't recognize a healthy diet if it ran over them on a John Deere tractor!
Unless I just feel like toying with one of these 'diet nut-jobs', I just chalk it up to ignorance and do like Nikki and agree with them and go on. But sometimes when folks ask how I lost the weight, I don't tell them a specific plan. I'll say, "for the first time in my life I just started eating 'real food', you know foods that aren't processed and packaged to death.
I respond with vague, generic, nearly unintelligible answers until I see that the interested party is sincere about wanting to know how to change their nutritional life. If they are sincere about learning I begin to give them enough information to entice them into learning more.
The naysayers...a special breed they are, and therefore they must be handled with extreme sarcasm!!!
Ron, aka The Former Donut Junkie
We all get THOSE kind of people and I just let them motivate me that much more to keep doing what I'm doing. And believe me...they don't go away just because you lose a bunch of weight either. I STILL have people telling me how dangerous and unhealthy my diet is after losing nearly 200 pounds and keeping it off for the past four years. Sheeeezz!
Give 'em numbers baby! I'm talking cholesterol and triglyceride numbers. Flaunt them LOW numbers and give 'em 'Cholesterol Envy'!!!
After all, the proof really is in the pudding!
Ron, aka The Former Donut Junkie
After all, the proof really is in the pudding!
Ron, aka The Former Donut Junkie
I don't think it matters what diet you on, people will want to lecture about their chosen philosophy.
If we are honest, we kinda do it too at times.
When I was on Weight Watchers, so many people wanted to tell me how they couldn't do without this or that junk food. Oh I can't give up cake or coca cola or burgers or whatever.
You will get a lecture all over the place.
Old people eat like crap. My grandparents were into the cakes and sweets and chocolate.
If we are honest, we kinda do it too at times.
When I was on Weight Watchers, so many people wanted to tell me how they couldn't do without this or that junk food. Oh I can't give up cake or coca cola or burgers or whatever.
You will get a lecture all over the place.
Old people eat like crap. My grandparents were into the cakes and sweets and chocolate.
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.
