I get the WORST resistance. I’m a junior in college, I’m weirdly healthy for my age group I guess. I’m a vegetarian, and pretty committed to staying in shape. My best friend makes comments along the lines of “I’m going to grind up a hamburger and put it in your food when you’re not looking” or “Do I need to force feed you?” when I don’t eat anything when we go to McDonalds at 1 in the morning or pass on desert or a second dinner. They try to make it as hard as possible on me to be healthy whether its only stopping at fast food restaurants when we travel or making fun of me for waking up early to go for a run. UGH! I try to feed them vegan meals I make and they make gagging noises. I’ve learned to tune them out but they really know how to push my buttons.

It’s funny because my husband is the most supportive, but unsupportive person on my quest to be healthier. When we met, he had VERY unhealthy habits. He grew up in a fast food family with a mom who rarely cooked. In college, he was addicted to soda and continued his fast food binges. He is not overweight or anything(surprisingly), so I get very stressed about his health in general.

Since I started blogging and making more of an effort to change my own unhealthy habits, my husband threw so much support to me and encouraged me daily. However, he still requests unhealthy foods for dinner and we do get into tiffs about it. He wants white bread, I want wheat. He wants milk, I want almond. I want soyrizo…he cringes. He is MILES better than he was before, but it’s hard for me to fully commit, if everyone in my household (ie-hubs) isn’t fully on board as well. Any advice?

My boyfriend is soooo supportive of everything I try to do to our diets and such, but he is a bit resistant to the exercise portion, so I have to kind of do my own thing there. I think society in general is a bit resistant to a completely healthy lifestyle, unfortunately!

I remember when I first changed my habits, I was eating a pretty boring salad for lunch (I’ve since learned how to create much more exciting salads but my progress was slow!) and a friend/coworker made fun of me one day for it. At first I was hurt and kind of ate quickly and left, but realized later that she was eating McDonalds (and later complained about not being able to lose weight). She probably wasn’t making fun of my salad she was trying to make herself feel better. I’ve since learned to be confident in my choices – to make food and drink decisions based on how I’m going to feel and to not be ashamed to turn down a drink or fast food meal. I’ve found that nosy coworkers will lose interest if they are faced with confidence. 🙂

People at my work tend to discuss weight and weight loss a lot–but I can tell they are genuinely trying to be helpful so I try not to take anything they say or do to mean that they are being judgmental or mean-spirited.

I’ve had friends, family members, and coworkers make comments about my healthy food, but over time I’ve developed friendships with those who have to same mindset as me. This definitely makes things easier and more enjoyable. I am also very fortunate to have a husband who has healthy eating habits and enjoys exercising as well!

I love that you love tree! It’s both a grounding and an uplifting pose all in one.

I don’t have too many naysayers in my real life anymore…they either get me and love me, or they’ve moved on. And so have i 🙂 On my blog…another story…ha!

I am really lucky to be surrounded by friends and family who support my ‘healthy’ lifestyle 🙂 They do, however, sometimes call me ‘crazy’ if I sigh up for a race etc which is weird. I keep telling them that we should do it together so that they can see it is not that bad – AND fun!

Caitlin,

Can I just say how much I love your blog! I’m a new reader and I really love that you talk about relationship posts on how to handle certain situations with friends, significant others, co-workers, etc.

This one is definitely tricky. I’ve recently started working out “seriously” (as in routinely) in the last several months and have gotten all kinds of different responses, both positive and negative. I wish people didn’t have to put others down or make them feel bad about choices they make, especially when they are concerning health.

Your posts have been super helpful these past few days. I have a co-worker who is on a “diet” and she’s driving me crazy. She’s become obsessive over every calorie she eats and it’s really making me uncomfortable. (it’s a small office, we’re all very close, and she’s very open about it) It really sucks!
PS your budget post yesterday changed my world. I sat down and spoke with my company accountant and EUREKA! it’s like it all makes sense to me now. Thanks for putting it out there and triggering it for me. Happy Tuesday!

I just bought that same thai curry sauce at Trader Joe’s this weekend!! I’m SO excited to live near one, FINALLY!!!! P.S. Phoenix is gorgeous and there are mountains everywhere! You will love it while you’re visiting!

I definitely think it can be hard to make healthy changes in terms of friends. I normally meet friends for coffee and cake, and changing that would be quite weird. I suppose I should suggest meeting up for a walk instead but its just not the same!

I am pretty blessed as far as husbands go. Mine works out regularly and eats healthy (he’s type 1 diabetic). It’s one of those things we originally bonded on because it’s important to both of us. I’ve been a vegan/vegetarian for 9 years, so I’ve heard it all. But I think arming yourself with confidence and knowledge is the key. Be a constant student of nutrition and fitness and never gloat or use it to make others feel bad. Being an example by what you do and not just what you say is powerful!

My best friend and I were smoke buddies. We’d sit on my porch 2-3 nights a week, down a bottle of wine and smoke a pack of cigarettes. When I decided to quit in October, I knew it was going to be hard. I knew I was going to miss it, and miss those nights on my porch. My best friend has been verbally supportive, “I’m so proud of you,” that sort of thing, but when we’re together she always wants to know, “can’t you just come sit outside with me and chat while I smoke?” I don’t think she realizes how much it hurts me to sit there and engage in our favorite past time while I silently have to be strong willed. I don’t think she does it on purpose, but our friendship has suffered from it. I couldn’t even hang out with her for most of the first month. It’s sad but the people most important to you are also the least likely to believe in you sometimes. 🙁

I LOVE tree pose too! I’ve encountered some resistance, but luckily my friends are smart enough to look at my decisions in a positive light. Additionally, I even had one friend support my goal to stop drinking so much this year by making the same pledge!

I do feel like I get a lot of, “ewww, what are you eating?”

My family refers to Hummus as the “H” word! It was hard when I first told them I decided to go veggie, but now they see that it just wasn’t a phase and that this is who I am. It does get easier with time. 🙂

I went at my father’s for Christmas and they were not very supportive. He had a lot of arguments against vegetarianism – unfortunately for him, I had arguments too ;). My godmother thought it was funny that my father didn’t have the last word with me :P.

And that lunch looks incredible.

Your lunch looks awesome!
I sometimes get sarcastic remarks even from good friends about my pursuit of a healthy lifestyle, and they seem like they’re trying to be funny but maybe there’s a little bit of a sneer behind the comments.

Tree pose are one of my favorite yoga moves, too! : )

I’m a student at UCI and I’m working on an article about the subculture of food bloggers. I am incorporating, also, some parts of the healthy food blogging subculture into the article as well (I hope).

As you are an author, creator of operation beautiful, and a HFBlogger, I feel you would be a wonderful person to incorporate into my article.

As such, I was wondering if you would be interested in answering a few questions via e-mail (since I live in California) =P

I would love to hear your responses!
Let me know if you’re interested 🙂

Thank you!
Florence

Good topic. The main problem I come up against is the pressure to drink socially. There is a real pressure here in the UK to have big boozy nights out- and I have had enough!

Julia x

I usually get resistance from family, support from my husband and best friend, and indifference from acquantainces.