Comment by 0xB31B1B | Hacker News Reader

Comment by 0xB31B1B | Hacker News Reader

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Eating food and drinking alcohol is a core part of most social activities. When you're losing weight, you can't really fuck up, you really need to stick to your diet. I found it difficult to maintain my diet in social settings (going to a friends party, eating at a restaurant with friends, going to a bar to celebrate something, etc) so I just stopped doing all of those things for 8 months. Like, if you're trying to quit heroin you're not going to go hang out with your old heroin buddies all the time and you're not going to do go near the places that sell heroin. Now, imagine that instead of being addicted to heroin, you're addicted to food, and all of the places that sell heroin are all the places that sell candy or burgers or really anything nowadays, and all of your "heroin friends" are really just your normal friends who have healthy relationships with food. Its really difficult to get away from it. When you're addicted to food, the only real way to improve is to quit it cold turkey style and that means some serious lifestyle changes.

Thanks for the answer. In my own experience I went from eating out every day at work to packing a lunch and eating in the cafeteria. It didn’t mean less socialization at lunch but I did start eating with different people and I realize that is hard or not even an option for some. I set a rule for myself to only eat out once a week and that did the trick.

I also stopped going to a weekly bar event with friends and honestly haven’t talked to them nearly as much since then. Similar to eating out though I eventually replaced that with a watch party/game night/discussion club with a different new group of friends. Those events have drinks but not really as a focus.

I didn’t make all of these changes simultaneously though which reduced some of the challenge. None of it is easy though and I still feel bad for not keeping in touch with some folks I was previously close to.

It probably depends where you live and your social groups. In MT it seems that there are two main groups of people. Those who are into outdoor activities (healthier lifestyle) and your other group which is more adverse to the outdoors and prefer to socialize in Bars or at events. If you fall into the latter, it can be socially isolating if you want to lose weight or maintain a healthy eating habit.

That makes sense but it may also be that you just need to make different social circles. There are tons of casual sports teams, for example, and those people are all bonding over playing volleyball casually (not at a high level or something) or things like hiking. Now your social activities are helping you lose weight

Nope, lots of casual sports teams will have people say, "hey we couldn't really socialize during the game, let's go grab a beer afterwards?". Hiking is similar, "hey let's take a break and eat some lunch."

Bring your lunch with you.

If you do order out, get a salad and skip the dressing.

"I brought cookies for the team today, who wants one"

Then take up trad climbing or jiu-jitsu. Ok those aren't for everyone, but your tone is way too dismissive. There are many, many social groups that will naturally encourage better exercise and fitness, if folks are interested.

Everyone is addicted to food - what you're describing sounds like a great way to set yourself up for failure.

You can eat socially, you can have days you overeat and then fast the difference, etc. Pigeonholing yourself to super restrictive regimen - for what ? It's not like you have a deadline to lose the weight - and if your routine isn't easily sustainable you're just going to revert to old behavior as soon as something else starts taking your focus.

The only thing that matters with these things is trends and long term adherence.

No, everyone needs food. Not everyone is addicted to it.

Maybe in the loosey-goosey "I'm addicted to chocolate" way, but not in the "I habitually over-consume despite the negative consequences" way.

> Everyone is addicted to food - what you're describing sounds like a great way to set yourself up for failure.

as someone who has to be reminded to eat by their significant other or family lest I fall ill, from a long-line of people with the same trait, no -- not everyone is addicted to food.

I enjoy food, I consume food, but it doesn't produce any level of compulsion like an addiction does.

I just plan for it and eat less before/after event. I also got used to just eating rarer so say skipping dinner coz there is some event in the evening isn't a big deal

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