Do Your Friends Share Similar Diet and Exercise Habits?

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Do Your Friends Share Similar Diet and Exercise Habits?

February 23, 2009

The company you keep can influence the choices you make, and that includes decisions that impact your healthy lifestyle. My friends run the spectrum when it comes to diet and exercise habits: Some of them are health nuts like me, while others haven't worked out in years and think a meal is considered healthy when the main ingredients are chorizo and cheese. How does your social circle measure up?

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38 Comments

watereatsrock 4 years 12 weeks

I am a health conscious vegitarian, working on becoming vegan, and my roomates eat some form of meat during every meal, they both happen to be overweight...

amandaaa 4 years 12 weeks

it varies, but i tend to be the most health-conscious. my roommate and i workout almost every day together, and we're both obsessed with vegetables and eating healthy. on the other hand, i have a friend who will eat anything and everything and doesn't work out. even though at one point she convinced me to join a gym with her? haha. but since high school i've always been the healthiest eater among friends. at a dinner with dance team members in college, everyone commented on how healthy i was eating in comparison to their dinners...dinners like ribs and french fries. but it's a little annoying when everyone i eat with comments on my choices.

ROSITALUVSWILL 4 years 12 weeks

I'm a veggie with a running addiction. All my friends are sedentary and overweight.

AMP 4 years 12 weeks

My friends are all over the place. I have a friend who barely eats to keep slim but never exercises. One who eats like total crap, chips are a daily for her, but doesn't eat a large amount of food, and exercises every day. Another who is obese, keeps cans of pringles and candy in her desk at work, fills her whole carry on suitcase w/ food and get winded walking from car to house/work/etc. She's also "allergic" to exercise according to her.

dancinlaughin01 4 years 12 weeks

i eat very different from my friends and family. i work out daily for an hour and eat a healthy vegetarian diet. most of my family and friends are overweight which can be hard for me because they constantly make fun of me for being a so- called "health freak". but honestly i dont care because in the end, im probably going to live longer.

dancinlaughin01 4 years 12 weeks

LaurenG22 4 years 12 weeks

Wow... I wonder why some of you are even friends with these people if you have such different values. My friends and I are mostly similar in that we work out hard 5-6 days a week and eat pretty well... Except I pay more attention to stuff like HFCS, hydrogenated fats, etc.

tlsgirl 4 years 12 weeks

Smacks - I have gotten that same "no eating healthy on girls' night" type line *so* many times! Glad I'm not the only one.

soapbox 4 years 12 weeks

I love my friends, but their eating habits are scary. They eat Chinese take out and McDonalds daily and never work out. I can't live without working out; it makes me feel great and keeps me energized. They on the other hand hate it and think I'm insane for running everyday. It's kind of awkward eating with them sometimes because I'll have a plain old turkey and swiss on wheat while they bring in Taco Bell and a giant Frappucino with Whip. I just wish they were healthier, for their own sake, but who I am to say anything? I feel for them when they try a new outrageous diet, only to give it up the next day. Diets don't work for long guys! Taking care of yourself is all you need.

Spectra 4 years 12 weeks

Of all my friends and family, I know I'm the most active...I work out 6 days a week and do strength training 2-3 times a week. Most of my friends eat sort of healthy, but a lot of them are very disillusioned about what is "healthy" and what isn't. My husband thinks massive amounts of pasta is fine because it's fat free; my sister eats lots of cereals and refined grains, especially when she's pregnant; my boss eats candy bars for breakfast. My mom is always either on or off a diet...when she's off the diet, she eats lots of high sugar, high fat foods and puts mayo on everything. When she's on a diet, she watches things more. Truthfully, I wish my friends and family would care a bit more about what they eat and would exercise more. Almost everyone in my circle of friends is overweight or obese and some of them suffer from things that could be prevented by maintaining a healthy weight. I know I'm not a perfect eater, either...I like to follow the theory that I work out and eat right about 80-90% of the time, so I'll indulge every so often. But you'd be surprised at how many people either tell me: "Oh, if you work out, you can probably eat whatever you want, right?" and "Oh, you don't need to exercise; you're not fat".

katyharper 4 years 12 weeks

I think I'm healthier than most of my friends. But I'll tell you what I hate - I get up at 5 a.m. to work out most days, and it bugs me when my friends say i'm crazy to do that. It's not hard to get up that early once you're used to it, espeically since I know that I won't work out after work because I'm always so tired.

Allytta 4 years 12 weeks

my friends who don't really work out like me eat a lot of junk food but i try to eat healthy, and my friends who work out eat healthy...

mem952 4 years 12 weeks

i'd say about a third of my friends have a healthy exercise and eating routine. i did have a girls' dinner a couple of weeks ago where everyone at the table was complaining about their weight but then i realized i was the only one who exercised regularly. it really helps motivate me that my boyfriend is also a health nut like me. don't get me wrong we love our food but we exercise nearly every day and eat healthy most days.

becoming brina 4 years 12 weeks

I don't think i have any friends who do the *exact* same thing as me, but who does? My best friend, mom and i all belong to the same gym, and my bff and i usually hit the gym together once or twice a week. The rest of the time he's a runner, but i have a bad knee and prefer the elliptical followed by weight machines, and i try to do that 4x a week; my fiance works out at home; my mom has high blood pressure and uses the reclining bike and free weights. My fiance and i are vegan and try to eat whole grains, low sugar, natural and organic as much as possible (read: as much as we can afford!), most of our friends are hardcore omnivores, my sister is a flexitarian and eats organic. Even though we have such different lifestyles, i can tell that we all rub off on each other: my family eats vegetarian much more often now, my fiance and i went veg together, my best friend is quite an athlete and is a great gym buddy and motivator, my mom started going to the gym when i joined in January-we all encourage each other to be healthy and take care of ourselves :-)

GlowingMoon 4 years 12 weeks

My friends and family run the spectrum, too. Among my social circles, I am the most extreme. I consider myself a health and exercise geek.

aimeeb 4 years 12 weeks

I think so. We all try to eat healthy but indulge every so often. Plus exercise is key of course!!

Greentea1203 4 years 12 weeks

Yeah, so anyway, I thought the point was to talk about how you and your friends differ in exercise/eating, and I was just explaining how my friends differ from me, that's all. :)

Greentea1203 4 years 12 weeks

I had no intention of coming across as a health nut. I was just explaining my lifestyle as compared to many of my friends. I was in no way saying how I live is right and someone else's idea is wrong. I work out at the gym 2 hours a day to feel great and be healthy, not to lose weight or any other reason. (because I know I don't need to) Those 2 hours often involve a class or yoga of some sort. I, too, enjoy a big bowl of pasta and an entire basket of bread now and then, burgers and fries, or a huge slice of cake, and I also have times when I skip the gym to sit on the couch all night. I was referring to my friends who NEVER work out and ALWAYS eat a certain way. Thanks.

Smacks83 4 years 12 weeks

Yikes Running, I think thats a little harsh. Greetea was just saying what she said. I didn't sound holier than thou to me. It reminded me of some of my friends that will always say "I'm going to diet today or finally sign up to the gym" and then never actually do. Or the thing about "organic junk food" and how some people think its healthy. Oh, and Ironman? That sounds intense. I have to keep working on my swimming before I could even consider it. Congrats to you though, sounds awesome.

neonbee 4 years 12 weeks

I think I'm the healthiest among my friends. Some of them go to the gym regularly, but they don't necessarily eat healthy foods. Others are just lazy.

miss malone 4 years 12 weeks

My friends are pretty good about exercising but their diets are horrible to be honest. They are always going out for junk food or 2,000 calorie coffee drinks or something else unhealthy. I either just don't eat anything with them or I don't go. It's no big deal though. It's just my choice. I love my healthy diet. :) But I also agree with runningesq. Nobody is "better" than the next person just because they have a healthier diet or work out more, etc..

Francoisehardly 4 years 12 weeks

I don't hang out with a lot of people to be honest so there's not many people to include in this. But with the people I do hang out with and my family, no one would scoff at me for healthy eating or for doing exercise and I would ignore anyone who would. But there's also the fact that some family members have diabetes or high cholesterol and they know what can happen when someone doesn't take care of themselves. My cousin is the only person I know of who also has a vegetarian diet like me and who eats pretty similarly.

runningesq 4 years 12 weeks

wow, greentea, you might want to take a break from all that working out to polish your halo. How is the view from up there, above all us little people? I work out a lot, but unlike people who do the ET for 2 hrs at the gym, I work out with a purpose - to train. ... and I enjoy burgers + fries and dessert sometimes. life is too short to not enjoy treats in moderation. I'm so tired of the holier-than-thou attitude people have about eating "clean." get over yourselves.

Greentea1203 4 years 12 weeks

I am the only one of my friends that regularly works out. I work out 2+ hours a day, 5-6 days a week, and eat very healthy. I only eat whole grains, and eat protein and greens at dinner. My friends mostly sit on the couch when they're not working, watch TV and *think* they are eating healthy (as in, 'it's organic, it's healthy!' or 'I can eat this cake because I walked around Target for 20 minutes' or 'I'll order the salad (with dressing, bacon, crutons and be healthy'). My friends aren't fat at all, but not in shape, and it frustrates me because they all talked about joining the gym, and I was the only one who actually did. I get looks when I order the salmon and vegetables or a healthy salad at dinner, but I feel great afterwards, and not guilty like they do after they down a burger and fries.

ilanac13 4 years 12 weeks

similar to me - NO ...but similar to each other may be a different story. i find that for myself, i work out a lot more than most of my friends and i have different eating habits 1) since i'm a vegetarian and 2) because i don't like to have a large lunch during the day, so i have a couple smaller snacks that are healthy...so i don't sit at my desk with a lump of food in my stomach for the rest of the day.

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