<p>china–Sometimes it’s easiest to blame my husband’s heart health. I eat like he does, a team effort, and for the most part, cook what he eats-- doctor’s orders to keep him alive. Nobody has ever said anything back to that. When out and people ask him, he will tell them at length about his reformed eating habits and health history. They probably wish they hadn’t asked. Unfortunately, sometimes this means he’ll/we’ll go to an event, and leave hungry. He went to a pro basketball game the other night, with fancy seats, networking required, arena food provided, and came home very hungry after having one shrimp and one chicken wing. Such a pain, sometimes, but worth it when you view the health consequences. Anyway, if there’s a health issue at stake, most people will leave it alone.</p>
<p>Off the thread topic, but you homeschooled, BCE? We did too (until the end of fit teen’s hs years), and I was thinking the same thing about responses to the oddball questions and comments, particularly the S question.</p>
<p>china…I don’t eat beef or pork because it makes me very ill. When people ask why I am not eating I say it looks wonderful but I can’t indulge because of health reasons, laugh, and say you don’t want to hear the whole gory story and most stop asking questions.</p>
<p>Next party is at iDad’s home gym! Very cool. I’m jealous. We have a great space in which we could set up a gym, but for now we are sticking with our club. I use my couple of weights and kettle bells upstairs in the bedroom (not ideal). I suspect I will pull the plug and get a dreadmill at some point, but I am so picky about them (besides hating them anyway) that what I want would cost a fortune. H and I are still able to exercise outside most of the time around here. </p>
<p>Last night I got out of work a little late and decided (fortunately) to run closer to the office than I normally do to save some drive time. About halfway through the 4 miles the light rain started and it felt really chilly (dropped from 46 to 42 while I was out there) and just as I got back to the car it started to really pour. I got a little wet but not too bad. NOT comfortable and I’m glad I didn’t start running any later.</p>
<p>China,
“It all looks delicious, but since I’m trying to:
watch my weight
eat healthier
limit my indulgences
eat less late in the day
(choose which ever one is true for YOU)
I’m going to have to pick and choose what I enjoy!!”</p>
<p>(hopefully there is SOMETHING there you can eat - or sample very small portions of)</p>
<p>Nobody wants to talk food with me, and people in my life were pretty supportive of homeschooling. :)</p>
<p>Basement gym 2.0 is looking good, iDad.</p>
<p>I can’t find where IDad posted his gym! What # post???</p>
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<p>People talk food with me to varying degrees. I find that there are people that are very overweight that have all of the knowledge that we have on this board. They just don’t put that knowledge into action. I understand this because I did this for a while - I can always lose weight or get fitter anytime I want to. This summer, next year, a few years from now.</p>
<p>And then I’m 50.</p>
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<p>I think that it’s a lot better today but there were a lot of legislative wars on homeschooling in the 80s and 90s and much less understanding of it. If you brought your school-aged kids out on a school day, a well-meaning person might ask why your child isn’t in school or call the truant officer or social services on you.</p>
<p>Post 25006.</p>
<p>I often have to deal with some serious food bullies.</p>
<p>If I am truthful, offering answers such as I am trying to eat healthfully or I am trying to watch my weigtht. I have noticed people become very self conscience of what they are eating. Some even start to argue.</p>
<p>If I say I have a very touchy stomach (not so truthful), my friends/family continue to enjoy what they are eating and the conversation does not stumble into any awkwardness.</p>
<p>I guess that continues to be the best answer.</p>
<p>BC, when people do talk food with me, it generally goes something like this. <person glances="" at="" my="" plate="" with="" something="" like="" a="" chocolate="" croissant="" on="" it,="" looking="" slightly="" disgusted=""> “You eat whatever you want, don’t you?” I do <em>not</em> claim to be a food expert in any way, shape, or form!</person></p>
<p>We started homeschooling at the end of the 90s and were an anomaly demographically for homeschoolers where we were living.</p>
<p>Thanks BC.</p>
<p>Wow, iDad that’s a LEGIT gym! :)</p>
<p>So my first meal after the big experiment…egg white, spinach and flax seeds scrambled in half a TBS of EVOO with cayenne pepper. It was delicious.</p>
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<p>The thing about using the term healthfully if you are eating at a person’s home, you may be implying that the food that they are serving isn’t healthy and that they interpret that as criticism of their hospitality. Sometimes this can be avoided ahead of time by sending dietary restrictions as people would commonly do with food allergies.</p>
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<p>That’s closer to someone with food allergies as it’s something out of your control and less likely to offend.</p>
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<p>I wonder what they think of MOWC.</p>
<p>This is going to sound strange, but as a woman, having people not want to talk food and diet with you means you are on the outside, excluded from a lot of conversation. You are the odd one. :(</p>
<p>So, I thank you all here for letting me be part of the conversation. Clueless about food as I am!</p>
<p>I learned from this thread that, even though I like sweets way too much, I do have one important good habit. I don’t drink soft drinks, except on very rare occasion.</p>
<p>The only time I’d have real trouble not wanting to eat a meal I had been served would be a big pasta dinner. Otherwise, it’s pretty easy to just take a small portion of rice or potatoes and load up on the other stuff. If it were a one-shot deal, I’d probably just have the pasta. I’m so far from being insulin resistant now that I really don’t think an occasional carb-fest does much damage.</p>
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<p>If it’s family needling you about eating, keep in mind that there is a good chance they are actually trying to undermine your efforts, especially if they are overweight, too. In that scenario, your success is threatening. This is classic behavior when one person in a smoking household quits. The other person will go so far as to actually leave packs of cigarettes around to undermine you or offer cigarettes saying that just one will make you feel better…</p>
<p>The ruthless advice in those situations:</p>
<p>a) Ask once nicely to not leave cigarettes around because the temptation is too high. If they do it anyway, just destroy the pack and throw it away. At $7 a pack, they’ll quit leaving them lying around.</p>
<p>b) If they offer cigarettes, politely refuse once. Next time, say, “Well, OK… maybe just this once…” and take the cigarette. Destroy it in front of them. At $7 a pack, they’ll quit offering.</p>
<p>So, if the needling about food is from family members and consistent enough that it is obviously intentional, you might have to be a bit more forceful in staking out your ground. At the very least, sometimes it helps just to recognize how threatening successful weight loss can be. After all, it’s pretty scary to think that you may no longer be an enabler for poor food choices.</p>
<p>NMINN:</p>
<p>I am definitely not worthy! I couldn’t do a Dr. Oz 3-day Detox if you paid me! Actually, I’m not sure I could watch a Dr. Oz show about the Dr. Oz 3-Day Detox diet! :)</p>
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<p>Yeah, I’ve got pretty much everything for a good workout. The cable pulley setup and the kettlebell additions help. The kettlebell lets me convert a bunch of weight plates that I had been using for a “kettlebell” DB back to DB pairs, which is good because I have been needing to move up in weight on some stuff.</p>
<p>Biggest limitation is a 7 foot ceiling – although I have a spot at the foot of the stairs that is taller where I do DB snatches. I keep hoping that I’ll brush my noggin on suspended ceiling tiles on a squat jump one of these days. So far, no luck. I need to move some stuff around in the unfinished area in the basement to clear enough concrete wall for bouncing a med ball off the wall.</p>
<p>The only thing not in the basement is the Airdyne bike. That’s upstairs in my office. I can’t ride the thing in the summer without fresh air blowing on me with a fan and an open window or air conditioning…</p>
<p>Best gadgets: the milk crate for the stability ball and the little folding plastic stools from TJ MAXX. They are 9 inches tall and hold 300 pounds. Makes it so much easier to grab a couple to position DBs for bench press or split squats or to hold a barbell up off the ground when changing weights. Can’t see 'em that well in the photo, but the little Staples/WalMart magnets for holding my workout sheet to the DB rack are functional!</p>
<p>I’ve now got a set of powered computer speakers set up on a bookcase on the opposite side of the gym. I can plug either my iPod into those (for podcasts) or the tablet for Sirius radio or iPod nazi workout videos. So, headphones only needed when I’m listening to music.</p>
<p>The easier it is to use all this stuff, the more I am likely to use it!</p>
<p>Great gym, idad! Thanks for sharing. You are so lucky to have a space like that. We, like most residents here, have no basement; the water table is just too high. The equipment looks so orderly and varied. Your FedEx guy must wonder what in the heck you’re amassing. </p>
<p>Speaking of FedEx, thanks to the miracle of modern shipping and Amazon Prime, the heart rate monitor I ordered yesterday appeared this morning on the doorstep. I’m taking it to the gym this afternoon to experiment.</p>