it's crazy how i look around the room at snack and NOBODY is eating fruit(or veggies) they're either eating a brownie or some chips it is crazy not only that, but my friends think vitamin water is good for you, and
anything organic or labeled "natural"(which doesnt mean it is organic) is healthy lol
FEATHERA 6/25/08 6:36 P
I agree with you 100%. The whole American mindset of "bigger is better" can be so annoying and harmful for someone who's just trying to live healthier.
My family's eating habits bug me soooo much, because when dinner of fried, mayo and butter covered whatever is revealed and I say I don't want any, my mom asks me at least another 5 times just to make sure. No, I don't want to die of cardiac arrest, but thanks anyways.
Luckily, my friends don't bug me about my eating, but that's also because it's just not brought up that much. In my head I'm constantly wondering if they have any idea how unhealthily they are eating, but I rarely say anything because they didn't ask me for my input. Do you think you do that and maybe that's why they nag you?
Next time they say something disrespectful like that ("Take the damn cookie."), say "No, but thanks anyways." and if they persist, then at least you know that it's them who have the problem and not you.
DOBIELUVER93 6/25/08 3:23 P
This is why I have the GREATEST friends on the planet.
I'm genetically prone to being overweight. My mom is big, my dad is even bigger. (Recently my mom got a gastric sleve, a weightloss surgery, and she has lost 75 pounds.) But they have always eaten healthy and instilled it upon me. I'm not that much of a junk food eater. I get sick if I eat too much and feel like crap. I just eat too much of the healthy food. ^^ And right now i'm fighting genetics and myself. Mostly myself.
My friends know that I am on diets a lot. I've tried weight watchers and just plain eating healthy. When i say that I dont want to partake in something, my little friend Sierra, who is 4'10" and 90 pounds will try to convince me, but once I say "no" again, she lets it go. I do sometimes partake, but only when I have been doing good.
But America in general is HORRIBLE when it comes to eating. I see girls that are 30 pounds UNDERWEIGHT but eat like total pigs. One of my old friends is like that. All she eats is junk food. And another of my friends would have for lunch:
2 slicea of grease infested pizza Box of Chick-Fil-A Nuggets Cookies Iced Tea Chips
Every day at lunch. It grossed me out. My stomach could never hold that much. Yet she is WAY skinner.Her family goes out to eat almost every night. But I took her to a fundraiser softball tournament, and she was so unhealthy, she was gasping for air after going around the bases ONCE.
Even though people are skinny, most of them are really unhealthy. I would rather be big and in good health, than frail and unhealthy.
KAILSSX3 6/25/08 2:34 P
i didn't mean it in a smug tone, all i did was simply pull the veggies out of my lunch bag. i was just trying to show that when teens eat healthy it seems to be weird now, whereas back then i think it was normal to be eating veggies and fruits for lunch. no one thought anything of it or said anything like "oh your so healthy."
COACH-NICOLE 6/25/08 9:18 A
I'd say to make sure you're not acting "smug" around them--maybe your underlying attitude is coming through and they think that YOU think you're better than them.
I encounter this a lot as a vegetarian. People assume that because I don't eat meat, I'm judging them and I think they're bad. Maybe your friends and family feel the same way--the fact that you're doing something different than them makes them feel self-conscious and "judged" even if it's not the case.
Keep in mind that people SHOULD enjoy food. Maybe instead of always turning down treats, if you're hungry or do want to try them, you can try a small portion. Life's too short to avoid all cake and ice cream--and that'd be pretty boring too, if you ask me. There's a time and a place to enjoy and celebrate with food--it's a big part of our culture and experiences here, and that's OK as long as it's not out of control and you make healthy choices 80% of the time.
Coach Nicole
KAILSSX3 6/25/08 8:12 A
OMG I TOTALLY AGREE. at lunch i always brought baby carrots, celery and snow peas and one of the overweight girls at my table said "ew how the heck do you eat that stuff!?" as she took a bite of her bag of cool ranch dorritos.
health is important. teenagers think the choices we make now don't affect us. its hard to change your habits later on in life.
AMYKIMIKO 6/24/08 10:44 P
I can't just say something like that. My friends think it's disturbing how I don't enjoy eating things like cake and ice cream. I'd really rather not, now that I know their calorie and fat content. If I really go past my learned reaction (Oh, ice cream! Yummy!), I find that I really don't like junk food all that much. But my burrito-munching, soda-gulping, cake- and cookie-crazed friends apparently think I'm anorexic or something (and I'm NOT! I eat things like Peanut Butter and bread...and it's my brother's birthday so I'm going to have some cake. If I were anorexic, I wouldn't do that).
VEGANCHICK101 6/24/08 10:20 P
yeah just because i dont want a piece of cake I'm automatically the "weird one"
Crazy enough, when I bring carrots and cherry Tomatoes to eat for snack at school some of my friends go ew while they eat twinkies and trans fat brownies! I always just say "it's healthy"
HAPPYBYHEALTHY 6/24/08 10:15 P
I agree completely with everything you brought up. America needs to change, obesity is one of the top reasons people die each year.
LEXI15 6/24/08 10:12 P
Wow i am very confused. wat i understand is the skinny people complaining and watnot. but i do see wat your saying...kinda and i agree...im pretty sure...if im reading right
AMYKIMIKO 6/24/08 7:33 P
Ever since I started on SparkTeens, I've noticed more and more how unhealthy the people around me eat. If it's not chips and soda, it's cake and ice cream; if it's not mindless snacking in front of the TV, it's Chinese takeout. It's a sort of American tradition, I've been seeing, that if nobody's doing anything, it's time to eat. I'm trying to avoid that.
Unfortunately, it's also some sort of unspoken rule that if somebody ISN'T stuffing chips into her mouth, there's something wrong. Then you get the, "What's the matter? Are you okay? Here, eat some chips, have some soda, do you want the rest of my (insert high-calorie, high-fat snack food)?" And the answers, of course, are "Nothing," "Yes," and "No, thanks," respectively. But if you say that, people still look at you strangely.
It seems that America has come to a conclusion: If you can eat whatever the **** you want, especially if you can do it without getting ginormously fat, then you absolutely MUST, or else you'll get weird looks for being "on a diet."
School's out now, so I don't have to endure my friends with their, "You and your diets. Just eat the d*mn cookie already," and, "How can you think you're fat? If you're fat, what am I? Morbidly obese?"
I don't think I'm fat, but I know America in general is. And even those skinny losers who can eat whatever they want and are still twenty pounds underweight aren't healthy. I can say with almost smug pleasure that I can walk into a room full of kids my age, and I am likely the healthiest one there.
And yet, the "stuff yourself silly" mindset of society has me feeling self-conscious about that. Now that I've talked your ear off, anybody else find themself in the same situation?
