Ever feel like an outcast because you lift?

[marcmn]

Ever feel like an outcast because you lift/workout and parts of it interfere with interacting with others? For example, I usually don't go out to lunch with co-workers because I bring my lunch (muscle building food) and they all eat junk food. Also, I make it a point to get to the gym as my workout dictates and sometimes miss a lot of company water cooler talk. Also, get plenty of stares at the tuna and chicken breast I eat. On the other hand I have been told I look the best of everyone in my office and am getting bigger. Anybody else have this experience?

[hapkido]

I was a welder back in the 80's and I used to hand carry 300lbs beams , others used a fork lift.

[Odin1970]

Originally Posted by hapkido

I was a welder back in the 80's and I used to hand carry 300lbs beams , others used a fork lift.

In the 80's I was smoking weed, going to grateful dead concerts and perfecting my interactions with women.

Hand carrying 300lb beams? Come on man....

[Odin1970]

Originally Posted by marcmn

Ever feel like an outcast because you lift/workout and parts of it interfere with interacting with others? For example, I usually don't go out to lunch with co-workers because I bring my lunch (muscle building food) and they all eat junk food. Also, I make it a point to get to the gym as my workout dictates and sometimes miss a lot of company water cooler talk. Also, get plenty of stares at the tuna and chicken breast I eat. On the other hand I have been told I look the best of everyone in my office and am getting bigger. Anybody else have this experience?

I peel my hardboiled eggs in the kitchen and get odd looks from time to time. Oddly I work at a YMCA and most of my co workers dont work out at all. I dont feel like an outcast persay, I honestly feel like I am blessed to understand the value of weight training to overall quality of life.

[oldsuperman]

When my clients and friends call me and get my voice mail, they always say something like, "it must be gym-thirty" or "When u stop pumping up, give me a call". I guess it's better than, "must be beer-thirty Ed, give me a call when u sober up"!

The funny thing is, I spend a lot less time trainin, than they do sittin of their asses watchin TV or nappin!

[exhibita]

Originally Posted by marcmn

Ever feel like an outcast because you lift/workout and parts of it interfere with interacting with others? For example, I usually don't go out to lunch with co-workers because I bring my lunch (muscle building food) and they all eat junk food. Also, I make it a point to get to the gym as my workout dictates and sometimes miss a lot of company water cooler talk. Also, get plenty of stares at the tuna and chicken breast I eat. On the other hand I have been told I look the best of everyone in my office and am getting bigger. Anybody else have this experience?

No.

One thing dropping over 100lbs and working out has done for me, is make me a vain bastard I love to talk about me now, and love to show off what I am doing and the progress I have made. Outcast? Nope. In fact, I -was- an outcast before, when I was morbidly obese..now..I am anything but.

Are my new habits odd? Only to the uninitiated.

..but that's thier problem.

[Minotaur]

I've never run into anything like this. For all the (real or imagined) crap I get from people over just about everything else, I've never gotten crap about my lifting. If anything I get respect for it. It seems that people know it's part of me, what I do, and there's no changing that.

[msfitnetz]

Damn! I hang out in the wrong crowds. I never locate people ( close to me) with serious weightlifting likes seems I AM a minority.

[cookiecrumb]

Originally Posted by marcmn

Ever feel like an outcast because you lift/workout and parts of it interfere with interacting with others? For example, I usually don't go out to lunch with co-workers because I bring my lunch (muscle building food) and they all eat junk food. Also, I make it a point to get to the gym as my workout dictates and sometimes miss a lot of company water cooler talk. Also, get plenty of stares at the tuna and chicken breast I eat. On the other hand I have been told I look the best of everyone in my office and am getting bigger. Anybody else have this experience?

For me, its the food thing. If I'm not eating junk people bring to work, they think I am not being social or something. They ask me if I'm eating catfood when I open my tuna can. Ugggghhhhhh. Not always amusing.

[oldsuperman]

Originally Posted by Minotaur

I've never run into anything like this. For all the (real or imagined) crap I get from people over just about everything else, I've never gotten crap about my lifting. If anything I get respect for it. It seems that people know it's part of me, what I do, and there's no changing that.

Hey friend, ur rite too on this. I do get a lot of respect. I call it "Muscle envy".
LOL!

[dmr11]

The envy comes from wanabees. When I hear the excuse, "I just don't have the time", I just turn a walk away. They just take the easy way out. I just remember the old saying, "Living well is the best revenge." By living well, we will be going to all their funerals.

[pgb2006]

Speaking of bodybuilding food Someone at our gym was cooking their food in the microwave and sending a horrible stench that permeated every square inch of the building and caused me to reminisce about high school science lab experiments. Then I wrote this little note with advertisement for the food area..Road Kill Cafe..and left it there. They QUIT it!!! I couldn`t believe it.

[Plato458]

When I used to lift a lot a couple of years ago, guys I worked with used to poke fun but underneath treated me with more real respect.

I think they were just trying to make themselves feel better for being chubby TV fodder. I'd rather be fit and firm than a lardy no threat

[skinnyboipgh]

Ur real friends will accept u as u r and not pick on u 4 being "different."

[msfitnetz]

Originally Posted by skinnyboipgh

Ur real friends will accept u as u r and not pick on u 4 being "different."

But need friends to begin with!! :-)

[x047177]

I know exactly what you mean. We're the people at the party who has a cup of water, or doesn't have more than a few beers. The people who bring a healthy lunch to work, and miss out on the "fast food runs". I'm proud of it, we're some of the most dedicated people in the world, and what better a cause than for improving your health.

[pgb2006]

Originally Posted by x047177

I know exactly what you mean. We're the people at the party who has a cup of water, or doesn't have more than a few beers. The people who bring a healthy lunch to work, and miss out on the "fast food runs". I'm proud of it, we're some of the most dedicated people in the world, and what better a cause than for improving your health.

I have been questioned,"How can you be able to eat that and stay slim?" I`d eat one piece of pie at a party and everyone was singling me out making me feel on the spot. I`d confess,"I haven`t had a piece of pie in a month and this is a planned treat meal. Everything got quiet for the count of three and someone said,"Really?"

Well,that just made it worse!!!

You can`t win for loosing. Then again I`d rather lose a friend or two than die before my time.

[oldsuperman]

Originally Posted by skinnyboipgh

Ur real friends will accept u as u r and not pick on u 4 being "different."

NONE OF IT BOTHERS ME!!! It's just pathetic, and sometimes funny too!

[Baldsnake]

I get a kick out of being a bodybuilder amongst toads. For years diets have floated around where ever I work. Sometimes the girls have contests. Everyone has seen me dial it in for a competition and they all know I have degreed in Nutrition. YET I have NEVER been asked about diet or exercise. This even extends into my own family....over this past weekend we had a gathering of Snakes at my sons home in Beverly Hills. My oldest daughter, an attorney from the San Francisco Bay area, told her youngest sister that she just hired a nutritionist....WHAT?? Hello...is this microphone on??

Outcast no...invisable yes.

[Minotaur]

A prophet is without honor in his own country... or something like that.

[Mark1T]

I'm not enough of a freak to be an outcast. Plus, it doesn't consume my conversations when out with family, friends, etc.

[mature_1_59]

I don't get much negative feedback for my workout habits, but I am not that big (never been called a bodybuilder).
I do get positives from the ladies, ("you look pretty good for an old guy". btw that's when you know you're getting old) however apparently not positive enough for a date. (But thats a more of a matter of shyness I think on my part.) Anyways....
I was at a meeting a few months ago with some guys I hadn't seen for a couple years, and got a lot of good comments.
If I do get someone curious about why I work out so much and eat like i do, I just tell them that its a hobby and I enjoy it. Just like them tinkering with thier cars, or playing golf 3 times a week.

[dbx]

Originally Posted by Baldsnake

I get a kick out of being a bodybuilder amongst toads. For years diets have floated around where ever I work. Sometimes the girls have contests. Everyone has seen me dial it in for a competition and they all know I have degreed in Nutrition. YET I have NEVER been asked about diet or exercise. This even extends into my own family....over this past weekend we had a gathering of Snakes at my sons home in Beverly Hills. My oldest daughter, an attorney from the San Francisco Bay area, told her youngest sister that she just hired a nutritionist....WHAT?? Hello...is this microphone on??

Outcast no...invisable yes.

Man, does that ever ring true here. After working out with me most of this year, both of my sons have heard me preach and preach about what to eat, what not to eat etc... Did they listen? No. Now, they come home from school (they "learn" from their buddies who workout) and say chit to me like, "Dad, did you know PB and tuna (etc, etc,) can actually be good for you?"

[DarinK]

Originally Posted by marcmn

Ever feel like an outcast because you lift/workout and parts of it interfere with interacting with others?

Sometimes I feel like this. For example last Friday I was invited to a party by some co-workers, but I didn't attend because I had already done my cheat meal the day before. All they do at these parties is consume mass quantities of food and mixed drinks. Being around all that alcohol and food sucks if you can't do it.

[resurrected]

I have felt like an outcast my whole life on every day living, so it really makes little difference to me. I hang with myself and my kids. I have no one else to hang with. I work out alone, I was born alone and will more than likely die alone. I enjoy it. Much safer that way.

[c502cid]

Sometimes I feel like my co-workers think I'm showing them up when they want to meet after work and I say no. I dont tell them where I'm going until they say, "why not?" When I tell them I'm going to workout you get the "missing one workout wont kill you" lines but the way I see it, they need to get over it, not me. I enjoy working out and thats that.

[stahlhart]

I feel like an outcast because I don't have a working avatar.

/squeaky wheel etc.

[jmc53]

No. I see more envy than anything.
Specially when people find out I'm eating 8 times a day and not getting fat!

[SR800]

Originally Posted by cookiecrumb

For me, its the food thing. If I'm not eating junk people bring to work, they think I am not being social or something. They ask me if I'm eating catfood when I open my tuna can. Ugggghhhhhh. Not always amusing.

I can relate. Many are are getting better at work and respecting the dedication of the last year, especially those who knew me when I started this job 11 years ago and was around 170-180 ish in the 10% range, eating every two hours etc. I slowly let the habits and excuses, lunches, skipped work outs, social drinking, crap food etc to allow me to turn myself into a tub of lard of my former heavy duty self.

We had a birthday party and while everyone was having cream pie, apple pie and ice cream I just said no thanks. One of the negative ones made a comment and I just laughed telling her that it was 9:30am and I had already had over 1000 calories which included a protien shake, eggs, oatmeal, oysters, venison, a carb shake and was getting ready to have a nice bowl of almonds, oats, pistacios, brown rice, and peanut butter. Why would I want to eat that crap when I had ridden 15 miles this am and was planning on setting another personal best on bench press the next day. I really don't give a rats ass what they think about what I eat or how I live when I consider where it is comming from.

[greggamma]

It makes other uncomfortable so they peck, tease, complain, etc..We disrupted the normal flow because we chose to grow. They like the plain old white bread homeostasis. People want people to be like them. Why do you think we all congregate here? We commune with others like us for ideas, support, fun, etc...Diet changes are weird for them too. I just depends who you live and interact with. I keep myself going but a stranger looked at me the other day slyly and said,"What else do you do besides lift weights." 'Nough said.