The anti-diet talk mantra

(Image from Gourment Girl Magazine)

“All I’ve had to eat today was some crackers.”

“Oh really? All I’ve had is a coffee!”

“I’m not even hungry!”

“Me either!”

A sample conversation I witnessed, this past weekend, between a good friend and an acquaintence. It was all I could do to restrain myself from rolling my eyes in front of them. There was plenty of internal eye rolling.

I know some people don’t eat regularly, for whatever reason. That’s their perogative. But the constant justification and almost congratulatory tone of what a person chooses to eat or not eat is something that irks me a great deal.

These were the same people who I went out with for drinks later on in the night. I had assumed we were going to be eating dinner, as we had met up mid-afternoon. They had not planned on dinner and did not “feel hungry” anyway. I feel I’m well past the age where I am totally cool with drinking on an empty stomach, so I insisted on food. Pub food, which does not agree with my stomach, but at least it was food. All they could focus on was the “badness” of the food.

This? IS SO BORING. It’s something I’ve ranted about before, but it wasn’t something I’ve encountered for a good long while, as most friends I have seen socially lately have been fat positive, anti-diet talk people. I think I got used to being in that safe bubble, where there were no judgements on food, no talk of the latest way to lose weight and no congratulatory comments on weight loss, and being shocked out of that bubble was, well, shocking.

I wish I had said something. I wish I had made it known that I was uncomfortable with that sort of talk. I’m not quite sure why I didn’t.

I feel like maybe I should print out this post and hand it to them the next time they start with this sort of talk. Maybe I should add something along the lines of:

Hey guys. This sort of talk is really not fun to overhear or take part in. I refuse to do it. I refuse to disparage my body or another person’s body to make myself feel worse/better. You’re both smart women who have both achieved so much in your lives. Can we please find something to focus on other than the size of our stomaches? It’s boring, and not productive in the slightest. Kisses, Sonya.