I eat salad just about every day for lunch at work. And I don't just bring a small token salad, I buy those bags of ready to eat tossed salad that are supposed to feed 3-4. Since its basically my entrée, it needs to be big. And besides, salad has virtually no calories, its essentially free. It isn't until you load it up with meats, cheeses and high calories dressings that salad becomes a problem. I will eat a full bag of this stuff at lunch with some low calorie salad dressing (no, I won't eat it with just vinegar and a bit of oil, if I'm going to eat friggin' salad, I need it to taste good). And no, I don't drown it in the dressing, I usually buy the low cal Italian dressing which comes in at about 5 or 10 calories a tsp depending on which brand you buy, and I try to be careful how much I apply. Add a few cherry tomatoes and perhaps some cucumber slices and we're ready to go!
So why is it that when I'm standing in the kitchenette at work pouring the salad into a bowl and preparing it for lunch that at least 2 people insist on saying "That's all your eating?" or "Eating grass for lunch?" or "That's a big salad!" Do I comment on your lunch? In our multi-cultural society, you can expect to find any and all cuisines represented during the lunch hour, all warming in the community microwave ovens creating quite an aroma around the building. So do I walk by you while you're preparing your exotic lunch, take a whiff, and say "Jesus, that smells like something I left in the toilet last night" or any other thing that might come to mind? Why comment on someone's lunch anyhow? I can see it if it smells wonderful and you wish to complement them, but just to question your choices? Why is salad such an odd choice? I thought everyone was eating salad in these health conscious times. Just because I choose to not bring a sandwich or some leftover from dinner the night before or order a bacon cheeseburger from the cafeteria doesn't make me an freak.
I'm trying to eat better. I'm trying to make sure I get my veggies in every day. And not just cooked veggies which are how you are not supposed to eat them, but raw and fresh. Or is it because I'm a guy and guys aren't supposed to eat salad other than as a side plate to their more manly entrée? I'm tring to lose weight! I'm trying to do the right thing and make the right choices! I don't need some bozo making snide comments about my lunch! Yes, I'm eating a salad. Yes, that IS my lunch. Go fuck yourself!
5 comments:
Yes, it's totally rude and there's no excuse for it. What's worse, if you actually looked fat to them, I bet they'd remember their manners and wouldn't make the crass remarks. The positive side might be to try thinking of it as a reverse compliment...
I hope the fact that YOU are doing what you need to do for yourself, your goal and your health will keep you strong and focused!
Thanks Elvis! I just find it really strange that of all the items being warmed up in the kitchenettes, all of the lunches sitting in the refridgerators, that my salad provokes the most comments. Like I'm some kind of freak or something!
Bah!
i have a colleague who comments all the time. comments my healthy lunches, that is. onc ei have just said SO WHAT!!! in a mena tone... and it helped:))
I am a male fitness trainer in our local gym... always watch what I eat and have a very strict diet from which I rarely divert (and actually, have come to the point where eating outside my diet, especially junk food, results in my becoming very naseous).
I also eat the same thing in my lunch every day: cottage cheese, yogourt and fruit.
And like you, every day someone in our lunchroom says to me: "How can you eat that every single day? Is that all you're going to have? You must get sick of it."
My response: "It tastes good, and I like it. And I eat foods I like rather than foods I don't like."
And if necessary, I further it:
"If I were to eat your lunch for example, I would probably ralf chunks before I finish it because it is unhealthy, greasy, fatty, and pre-packaged with loads of preservatives and chemicals."
They often acknowledge that their lazy, store-bought or fast-food lunch indeed barely passes for anything edible, then cease commenting on my lunch. :)
The best part is hearing someone trying to defend this... "But My Big Mac has lettuce and tomatoes in it and they're good for you!"
Ah the irony.
larry t - that's hilarious and so so true.
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