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Im a 30yo male living in Denver but im originally from New Orleans, when i was 24 i weighed 650 pounds i lost 450 pounds the old fashioned way and i feel good about myself and im happy. But it really bothers me that here in Denver if you are not 100 pounds then you are automatically considered unhealthy. My blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol levels are all perfect and even better than some of the thin vegans i work with at Whole Foods. But it makes me feel bad when people here just assume your unhealthy if your not 100 lbs. Back in New Orleans and where i went to college i was considered healthy and a nice built football build. I want to know whats the difference? It seems West Coast and Mountain states considers healthy to equal thin atomatically and Southern and East Coast States considers the whole person when using the word healthy. Im not saying everyone is this way it just seems like the majority is.
He LOST 450 pounds, so now he must weigh 200. Good job, Sly! There will be prejudiced people wherever you go. Just focus on the accepting ones and keep working at eating moderately, exercising, and staying healthy.
Don't give those people the time of day. Obviously with all the "work" they put into keeping their "image", they still remain unhappy enough to pick on other people.
Very sad.
Just avoid those types. And make sure you give them a snide smile as they walk by. You should be proud of what you have accomplished.
Must be the crowd you're encountering. I'm 6'4" and 250lbs, have a bit of a spare tire (not that you can tell if I'm wearing a shirt) and everyone new I run into here tells me that I look like a stereotypical Coloradoan. (That irks me to no end as I'm a Wyoming native... lol, dam Greenies).
Now, I don't go into 'Whole Paycheck' because it seems silly to spend 3x more for the exact same thing I can buy a dozen other places. Those places strike me as frequented by extremists, though I may be wrong about that... but I would not pay any attention to Anything said to me from people who work there (and see it as anything but a job). If you lost 450lbs through hard work and good diet, then you're a thousand steps ahead of the malnourished, anorexic/bulimic twigs who are slighting you.
Have confidence in yourself, or rather, don't Lose confidence in yourself. It's a universal truth that the people who try to point out the bad/make you feel bad are doing so because THEY feel bad. It's blame shifting.
Actually Whole Foods is very well run company and if you listen to the president/CEO he's far from a left-wing extremist (he's a Republican). That said, Whole Foods does cultivate an image and no doubt your co-workers there have bought into that image a bit too far. As others have said, you need to ignore them -- but if working with a bunch of those types is a pain in the rear you may want to consider finding a different place to work.
Im a 30yo male living in Denver but im originally from New Orleans, when i was 24 i weighed 650 pounds i lost 450 pounds the old fashioned way and i feel good about myself and im happy. But it really bothers me that here in Denver if you are not 100 pounds then you are automatically considered unhealthy. My blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol levels are all perfect and even better than some of the thin vegans i work with at Whole Foods. But it makes me feel bad when people here just assume your unhealthy if your not 100 lbs. Back in New Orleans and where i went to college i was considered healthy and a nice built football build. I want to know whats the difference? It seems West Coast and Mountain states considers healthy to equal thin atomatically and Southern and East Coast States considers the whole person when using the word healthy. Im not saying everyone is this way it just seems like the majority is.
Some people just need to feel superior. It is easier to do with something as visual as weight. I'd ignore them. Good for you on your weight loss. That is a huge accomplishment.
you know, a lot of yuppies and people like that in Colorado tend to go overboard. They decide to get interested in biking as an exercise and the only way they're capable of doing it is to bike 40 miles a day, up and down mountains. They get interested in anything as a hobby, and they think the only way to do it is to be obsessed with it, buy the most expensive gear, and do it to the exclusion of all else. They behave as if the only purpose in life is to outdo everyone else. They don't have any sense of balance.
Their concept of what means "healthy" is wrong.
This it the characteristic of people like yuppies who are transplanted to this area. This is most definitely not a characteristic of locals whose families have roots here. So don't worry about it.
I've had similar problems with weight and such(6'2 345 coming out of high school, down to 210 and "normal" looking by the end of college) so I understand what you're going through. What I've found in Denver(in the month or so I've spent there) and on the west coast is that it's mainly just the young people that have a problem with weight when it comes to just being polite and making friends. It's a bit different in the Northeast(much of my family is from Buffalo) and in areas like Chicago(where I spent significant time for work) where being a big man is more accepted and even seems to bother single women less, but at your current weight I wouldn't see a problem past the really cliquish young people, especially the highly idealistic types that would work at a place like Whole Foods and haven't really experienced life in the real world yet like you have.
Basically, I wouldn't worry about it. 200 lbs is not an unhealthy/obese weight for an average youngish male, especially if you're on the taller side, and regular people in the real world anywhere in the US don't think that you need to be twiggy in order to be "healthy".
A am 5' 9" 165 lbs (on a good day) and I have yet to meet one single person that would possibly think I should weigh 100 lbs to be healthy. I doubt I would have any physical strength or stamina at all if I were so grossly underweight. So if anyone is really telling you that, they're completely insane and should be ignored.
Your doctor or any nutritionist or physical trainer can help you calculate your ideal weight for your age and height (or you could just look it up online) and you should try to stay within that range if possible for maximum health benefits. OR, considering what you have already lost, how you did it, and that you have kept it off this long, you could just feel good and happy about whatever you weigh now, not worry about losing even one pound more, and just keep doing whatever you've been doing because that is absolutely outstanding!
ALSO ignore the advice of any vegans and anyone who shops exclusively at Whole Foods. In my experience, Vegans are people who were very picky eaters as kids, if not ones with bonafide eating disorders, who have glommed onto veganism as a way to justify their very poor eating habits. And most Whole Food shoppers are people who have just bought into the whole organic craze and, like the above poster mentioned, are being competitive and imbalanced about their nutritional choices. Not true at all. You can find plenty of healthy foods at your local grocery store, just try to stick to the outer ring and avoid all of the inner aisles as much as possible.
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