Scorecard

[cjsmith]

Last Wednesday's random offering: sweets (mostly hard candies) from, I think, Brazil.
Last week's happy hour: nachos and margaritas.
Friday's random offering: nuts coated with toffee and chocolate.
Monday's free lunch: burritos, tacos, and enchiladas, with nachos.
Tuesday: I think they had bagels but I honestly cannot remember for sure.
Today's random offering: enormous sticky pastries.

I don't know why this gets to me, because I firmly believe it is not anyone else's job to change anything just because I happen to have a really annoying restriction. (Why make more people miserable?) But it's just so bloody RELENTLESS. Is this really how Americans eat? All the TIME?? Is this really how I used to eat, all the time? With my family history of Type II diabetes? Why yes, I just might be a moron. (Right now I'm an annoyed moron.)

I do realize that the frustrating day I had yesterday probably has as much or more to do with my reaction to those pastries this morning as anything else does.

Comments

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

Heh, I just posted a thought about this on a separate space, but yes, Americans DO eat like this. A new study reports that one quarter of the US adult population is obese. Not just overweight, obese. I was obese for a long time and it took some obvious health clues to finally snap me out of it!

But the culture of overeating is really insidious. When I still ate Subway (it's a cost thing, these days, not diet), the counter assistant asked me what chips I wanted, and tried to give me a large soda. I said I didn't want any chips, and could I please have the smallest soda cup. She was flabbergasted that I would turn down free or cheap food in large volumes, and actually teased me for not taking it. "Too much food" doesn't compute for some folks.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm not even particularly talking about quantity, just quality. If 500 or 1000 calories of a person's daily intake are sugar, just how much nutrition is that person really getting?

Of course, quantity does become related when quality goes downhill. If 1000 calories of your daily intake are sugar, your body is undoubtedly storing it away for future use and soon telling you you're hungry again! (Unless diabetes has hit hard enough that you're just peeing it out. I can always tell when my cat comes out of remission and back into being actively diabetic: she loses weight. Her body says she's hungry, she eats, she can't use the glucose, it leaves her body in urine, her body releases fat stores, she can't use those either...)

[ohhjuliet.livejournal.com]

I am trying to eat better, for my health, for myself, etc etc etc. I am finding it nearly impossible, there is so much (too much!) temptation everywhere.

[ashiegrrrl.livejournal.com]

I'm in the same boat!

[busysuzy.livejournal.com]

When I joined Weight Watchers in September, I suddenly became aware of the relentless parade of goodies that tromp through my workplace EVERY FRICKING DAY. It IS relentless. And it's very annoying...and seems to be not a damned thing you can do except decline the offers and ignore the piles of food. I've gotten used to it now, but I remember in the beginning how ridiculous it was.

Same with quitting drinking 13 years ago. I never realized how very *advertised* beer was (my preferred alcoholic drink). If you watch TV at all...it is, again, RELENTLESS!

Feel you pain, in other words.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I'm amazed at the proportion of sugar and simple starches to everything else. I don't think I've seen a vegetable here at work since the time we ordered Thai several weeks ago. There may occasionally be a whole-grain bagel, where "whole-grain" probably means "sugar added" because the yeast needs to eat something. We're built on pizza, candy, nachos, and alcohol. The healthiest treat I've seen come by is probably the nuts, because those at least contained nuts.

[lindalee.livejournal.com]

I wasn't reading LiveJournal for several months, so I've missed the whats & whys of your food restrictions. Can you enlighten me?

Thanks!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

The short form: Massive antibiotics to treat Lyme disease. Yeast control diet to prevent systemic candidiasis. No sugars including most fruits and mass-produced sauces; no simpler starches including grains (of which corn and wheat are the worst), no potatoes, no beets, no carrots, no turnips. No alcohol, as it metabolizes into simple sugars. Moderate intake of fibrous starchy stuff like beans.

If you have to avoid wheat in the USA, you're in a world of hurt. If you have to avoid corn in the USA, you're in a worse world of hurt. If you have to avoid ALL grains AND sugars, you're just hosed!

I'm experimenting, at my doctor's recommendation, to see which of these restrictions I can relax occasionally. She says it's all about proportion and balance; eat *mostly* foods with food still in them, and then *some* high-glycemic empty calories won't hurt too much. So far, a glass of wine doesn't take me down, and neither does cheese fondue (held together with starch).

[bigjohnsf.livejournal.com]

I'm not clear if these treats are from the company or other employees.

Do people at work understand your situation?

If you were bringing you a treat, what would it be? Would other people enjoy that?

The most common reaction I've heard to someone defining themselves as vegetarian is "do you eat fish?" Your dietary restrictions probably blow their minds.

Maybe you could raise their consciousness. If they knew how to include you, one hopes they would.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Some are from the company, some are from other employees. There are people at work who understand my situation, but they're not the ones doing the food ordering. The person who does the food ordering has been told multiple times and has "forgotten" every time. I think she simply doesn't like me.

[layer.livejournal.com]

i had no idea how bad it was until i came out to tampa for business. the donut holes at the morning meetings were bad enough, but trying to eat in a strange city where you have little or no control over what food you have access to is brutal. and once you succumb it's hard not just to say screw it and eat that childhood favorite custard and those french fries (because you are starving and a small fish fillet from a sandwhich where i didn't eat the bread or tomato...) and so on... i even succumbed to alcohol. ouch.

i'm going to be in that world of hurt when i get home and have to pay the price on what i've done to my body over the course of this trip.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

If I had to eat without being able to cook, right now, I'd be in really rough shape. Vegetarians or celiac folk at least have something they can tell someone. For this, there's no way.

[jcgbigler.livejournal.com]

But it's just so bloody RELENTLESS. Is this really how Americans eat? All the TIME??

Yes.

Taste and smell are the two senses that don't need any processing. Taste data goes directly to the "pleasure/not pleasure" decider. Willpower requires processing. The reason Americans can't diet is because they're trying to stop a low-level urge with a high-level decision. Unfortunately, the decision never actually makes it to a high enough level in the brain soon enough for the willpower to do any good. Usually it's more like this:

t=0: "Look! Food!"
t=1 second: "Yum!"
t=5 seconds: "Damn, I shouldn't have eaten that."

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I wasn't even talking particularly about amount, just type. Americans are a diabetic's nightmare! I'm starting to think we almost never eat anything but wheat, corn, and sugar, washing it down with a Coke or a beer.

I do think brain processing can sometimes win. In the last couple months I haven't eaten a single one of these things.

[moriamerri.livejournal.com]

why, yes, this is how Americans tend to eat all the time.

Total aside: I bought 4 cantaloups today at TJs and the very nice woman in line behind me asked how I eat them. This was in addition to the joke about whether I was trying to wipe out all the melons. I told her that I just eat them plain, and that I bought 8 at once recently (but TJ's didn't look quite as good as the ones at Milk Pail, so I only bought 4.) It's UNUSUAL to buy "large" amts of fruit and veggies. ("Large" is in quotes because I'm really not sure this is such a large amount....) It is NOT unusual at all to buy large amts of coke, cookies, beer, etc. I see people doing it regularly -- and, "of course" businesses by soda pop in quantity. Oh, and did I mention coffee and how it customary to provide it free at workplaces, and for sale on every street corner? (And I'm leaving out other things I consider pretty junky that are commonly considered food such as butter, oil (any kind), eggs, meat....)

RELENTLESS is a great word. What's relentless is the offers of junky food. Go in 7-11, drive down the street, go to work, go to most gatherings of people. Everywhere. Relentless.

Unfortunately most of us find that level of availability makes it really hard not to eat stuff we would wish not to eat. Most people who want to modify/limit/improve what they eat need to work to lessen the number of situations where the parade of food goes on. Thus the problem with working, going to school, going shopping, driving down the street, etc.

My main stategy is to try to be relentless in availability of something I DO think I should eat. Not that I can match the random offerings in quantity and relentlessness -- but at least I can complete when I have the energy.