People and their obsessions

Aloha! We are still in Hawaii.

We've had a really nice time with a variety of friends and relatives coming and going. We had a wonderful week with my husband's long time friend and his two daughters, who are both just a kick and the nicest people I know. We did some fun things including hiking to the top of Diamond Head Crater. They left on Thursday.

Here I am at the top of Diamond Head

However…now some other friends are visiting that caused me some advance anxiety. They are obsessive about many things, but especially food and their weight. They are both tall and thin, and talk constantly about what they eat, what they don't eat, how much they work out, what they look like. And what others look like, how fat they are, etc.

I talked to Dr D a lot about this before vacation, because I know the effect they have on me, and I wanted to know how to handle it. Well, last night, at dinner, the talk started. "I've had too many carbs today." "We will have to walk a few extra miles tomorrow." Etc, etc. My husband loves to talk about this stuff in the abstract (as in nutritional terms), so he was right in there with them.

As the discussion went on, I could feel my anxiety building. Finally, I said "My doctor told me I am fine the way I am and I should just stop thinking about my weight. So I am not going to discuss this topic anymore." Not in a mean way, but just giving them a heads up that I didn't like focusing on this subject.

This morning, I'm feeling rather good about how I handled it. Empowered. At least I didn't just let the craziness go on and on, nor did I partake in the unhealthy mind games. They are leaving on Monday, so I think I can handle another few days. And if they start up again on the weight, I'll just repeat what I said last night. "My doctor says I'm fine the way I am so I'm not going to discuss this anymore."

I know I've gained a few pounds since we've come to Hawaii, but I really don't care. Seriously, I'm not just saying that! It's a different mind set than I've ever had before and it feels wonderful to really not care. I know whatever I've gained will come back off when we start to eat normally again at home. But I'm not going to worry about it!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

P.S. In case you read the original version of this post, you might notice I've changed some of the characterizations of our visitors, which were extremely negative and not very nice. In retrospect, I realized this is not the best way to handle these situations. Positive...that's what I need to be in all things.