Reactions to my new way of eating...........

[KristaO]

My family still calls our food "berries, nuts and twigs." GRIN.

OMG!! I love it!!!!

Reminds me of my husband's cousin:
He called our food WEEDS & SEEDS! LOL.....

[SandyW]

Hi Sandy,

I live near Cookeville, which is about halfway between Nashville & Knoxville. Where do you live?? One thing I like about Dr. McD's plan, is you can follow it without any strange ingredients...you can actually have similar dishes/flavors to what you are used to, with a bit of modification. And you can eat pretty inexpensively, too. Just depends on how exotic you want to get with ingredients.

I've heard of Cookeville, but have never been over that way. I live in the Tri-Cities area (northeast corner..Johnson City, Kingsport, Bristol area). Yes, I agree about not needing strange ingredients to follow the McD plan and it can be pretty inexpensive. I'll tell you, though, I have never chopped so many veggies in my life...LOL!! The whole time I'm doing that or working on any of the recipes, I just smile and think how healthy it is.

[PattyC]

I read a post, possibly here at some point and I thought it was a good answer. I'm going to use it from now on.

Here it is (or something like it): "I can't eat meat, fish, etc. because I get physically sick. I don't know what causes it, but I get really ill and my body reacts terribly."

For some reason, people will understand if you say you're a diabetic or you name some other "disease" and they accept what you're doing but heaven forbid if you're doing it for your health.

I think we should think up a name for our "disease" that sounds really impressive and just tell people that's what we have. When someone comes along who's really interested in changing their own lifestyle, then we can explain what's going on.

[Heart4Animals]

I just *rarely* answer these inquiries in the negative--you know, tell them what I *don't* eat. I have found that just mentioning that I "don't eat meat" or "don't eat dairy" makes the McDougall program sound like a diet, not a choice for health.

SO TRUE! When I am at a meal w/ my co-workers, they are like "can you have this?" or "can't you eat one of these"? I have to be polite but I really want to scream "it isn't that I *can't have* it, it's that I *don't want* it!!!" BUT - if you tell them you don't want it, and tell them why, suddenly you have highly offended them because you've insulted their wonderful SAD food (and mama, and baseball, and apple pie)

Tricia (H4A)

[Heart4Animals]

Now with friends and coworkers, I just tell them that I'm eating for my health. If they press for a more specific answer, I tell them to e-mail or call me later and we can talk. It works and it keeps our lunches friendly!

Yep , well - it *sometimes* works - but other times I find people are instantly on the defensive - what they *hear* you saying is "...so YOU must not care about YOUR health".

AND - they feel guilty too, because they *know* they don't have the will power to give up the SAD.

Tricia (H4A)

[Sher]

AND - they feel guilty too, because they *know* they don't have the will power to give up the SAD.

I think this is a key here. When co-workers are walking up to our break table with bags from various take-out joints, & I am sitting there with my container from home with rice & veggies, lots of greens, I don't have to say a word. They are the ones to start with the comments, as they are pulling out the greasy burgers/fried chicken and fries. Just the presence of a healthier choice makes them examine theirs, willing or not.

Sher

[Veggiewannabe]

Recently a few of us in my family took a road/camping trip together....the first words out of my cousin's mouth after they had made the first leg of the trip to our house was, "I just heard that you are a vegetarian! What is all that nonsense about?" Fortunately, he was saying it with a smile on his face as he was giving me a hello hug.... but I just smiled and said listen, I don't comment or berate you for what you eat, don't bug me about what I eat. I didn't hear another word about it.

It is incredible the picture vegetarians present in peoples minds....my gosh, it's just gotta be like death or the devil to them, seemingly impossible to comprehende.

I'm thinking back to this trip and kind of chuckling...we went to a restaurant on the wharf, really different and nice. The other three family members ordered one of something and my DH and I ordered about 5 vegetarian things. We just kept eating and eating and eating and eating! They were long done long before we pushed the plates away. Nobody said a thing, but I do wonder what they were thinking. We ate like little piglets, but all veggie stuff, AND they see us slimmer and healthier than ever. Do you think they put one and one together?

[MountainLady]

I don't get defensive anymore. I just shrug my shoulders and say, "This is what I like to eat." If someone presses a certain food I just say, "Nope, don't like that." Sometimes the less you say, the better.