On Sat, 3 Jan 2009 20:50:44 -0500, Ro Countryman <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

>I found that my radical change in weight, health, and lifestyle at the time
pretty 
> much silenced any further commentary from my family and friends and
colleagues, 
> except for "wow"s, and congratulations and "how did you do it" inquiries.

That doesn't work for me, unfortunately. I am thin like Ray Audette, Dr.
Cordain and Dr. Bernstein--even a bit thinner--so people see me and think I
am unhealthy, especially if they don't know I was born thin and that it runs
in my family. I am trying to bulk up with weight lifting and by eating lots
of food and including plenty of animal fats, but it hasn't delivered
dramatic or rapid results. Most of the old black and white photos I have
seen of Inuit/Eskimos reveal slender people (despite the stereotype of them
being fat--which I think must come from more modern Inuit who have been
eating "White man's food"), so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

>I found stating a medical condition was
>harder for people to argue with.  Those who insisted on further inquires I
>met with "I just have to watch my eating (or "...watch my blood sugar.")
> Then I politely ignored/calmly/cheerfully brushed aside further inquires as
>to my exact condition/treatment.  

How do you do that, exactly? What sort of things do you say? Some people can
get pretty persistent and mocking, making remarks here and there for months
and even years. Perhaps partly because they think I am too thin. I have seen
comments made on the Internet too about other Paleo-type dieters (such as
Ray Audette, Dr. Cordain, Dr. Bernstein, etc.) looking "too thin" or
"unhealthy" and the assumption is that it is because their diet is
"extreme." I don't let the negative remarks bother me, but it would be nice
to have additional strategies to deal with them. I focus on acting
energetic, cheerful and tranquil, figuring that eventually they'll see that
I'm not getting any thinner or sick or depressed and that this is not just a
passing fad. Lots of people see all low-carb-type diets as being passing
fads that are freakish. Just the other day one of my siblings remarked about
how the Atkins diet is "disgusting!" when someone mentioned he was trying to
cut down on carbs. Because Atkins died obese and LC dieting has been waning,
some people think that LCD and anything resembling it have been refuted.

My mother is one of my more difficult and persistent critics. She is one of
those mothers who always equated "fattening up" her children with making
them healthier.

>Tying a sense being entitled to and
>desirous of personal privacy about one's WOE to one's personal medical
>health worked like a charm;  no one argued with me, and no one felt their
>WOE was too slighted, which lowered their defensive hackles, esp the family
>cooks.

How do you phrase it, exactly? When I tie my WOE to personal medical health
people tend to start giving me advice to eat certain modern foods they deem
healthy. Just the other day when I tried that someone suggested I should eat
rice cakes with peanut butter to fatten up in a healhful way.