I'm Trying

Last week a group of my co-workers got together to order a few pizzas for lunch. They kindly asked if I would like to participate. I thanked them for asking me, but said no. One of the women then said to me, “You’re so healthy.” All I could think of to say back was, “I try to be.” Now, I hadn’t given a reason for not going in with them to get the pizza. This woman jumped to the conclusion that the reason was because of all the fat and calories in pizza. In fact that was only part of the reason. I really just didn’t want to buy lunch when I had already brought one with me. Don’t get me wrong. I love pizza. And I do eat it . . . from time to time.

At the risk of getting all psychoanalytical I wondered if she was projecting onto me her own thoughts about what she was about to eat. Bear with me here. While I have developed a reputation at work for eating healthy, these women also know that I don’t eat well every minute of every day. This particular co-worker has brought in cupcakes on two occasions. On both of those occasions I took a cupcake. In other words, she knows that I occasionally eat something unhealthy. Why then assume that was my reason for turning them down?

I frequently see people at work sitting down to eat lunch and then saying, sometimes to me, sometimes to no one in particular, “I know this is really bad for me, but . . .” To whom are they justifying their lunch and why?