I worked from home for the last many years. I'm used to using the bathroom 10 or so times per day. The thing is that I used to work from home, now I work in an office and I'm very self-conscious. I desperately need to keep my job. Do you have any tips for not looking weird? I think I will have to do less juice/liquid drinking.

Similarly, I like cabbage, broccolli, collard greens. Things that my ex has complained smell terrible. I notice people at work looking disgusted at my food. Do you encounter this and do anything about it?

Don't worry about the bathroom breaks there is no law that says how many times you allowed to go. I work in an office also and we have a couple of rules in place when it comes to odors. Fish is the only thing not allowed. People who eat regular diets might not be understanding of your lifestyle. Keep in mind that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Try not to bring some of the more odourous things in for lunch until you get comfortable with the new people you meet.

They're probably looking at you weird because of how you're eating it. So how are you eating it? If you're just chomping down a stalk of broccoli..yeah..weird looking.

Do salads so it looks more "normal". Lots of greens. They can't see what's hidden in it.

And yeah, less juicing/liquid will keep you out of the bathroom.

liponeer Wrote:
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> now I work in an office and I'm very self-conscious. I
> desperately need to keep my job. Do you have any
> tips for not looking weird? I think I will have to
> do less juice/liquid drinking.
I'd say either take something to eat that's
not so 'threatening' to your co-workers, or else eat alone.
Raw Foodists that I know have to always make an issue of what
they eat, as compared to what others are eating. One-upsmanship
you know.....WY

Liponeer, I'm sensitive to your situation but I find it interesting that your co-workers are so preoccupied with your food! I worked in human resources/employee relations for years and there are actually harassment policies against this type of behavior if you do feel like you're being harrassed. It's a fine line and yes this may be extreme, but I just wanted to highlight this point for consideration. If you're qualified for your position and are successfully meeting your performance objectives, well then your diet should be irrelevant. It's right up there with gender, race, sex, religious and other forms of discrimination. Your experience has got me thinking if based on the increase of raw foodists working in traditional workplaces will we then see an increase in lawsuits? I bet one is coming because if you think about it this is really ridiculous.

Things are not quite as overt as I maybe make it sound. Would you bring a durian to work and eat it without worrying that some people might really not like the smell? Probably not, I would think. It would depend on who you are working with. Broccoli and Cabbage have similar sulfur type smells if you blend or juice them, or munch on them.

Where I live, it is legal to fire an employee for any or no reason (my employment is "at will". So. unless someone said "I'm firing you because of the food you eat", I don't think there is anything legal involved in the predicament.

The more unpleasant people feel around me, the more threatened my job is. So, it is wise to be pleasant to people around me. It is also polite.

I'm still curious about the bathroom issue though. If you work in an office and you drink large amounts of juice, aren't you peeing all the time?

> The more unpleasant people feel around me, the
> more threatened my job is. So, it is wise to be
> pleasant to people around me. It is also polite.

Then eat more "normal" looking and less "Smelly" foods. I think you're making the issue harder than it is. Can you not snack on a bag of almonds or something?

> I'm still curious about the bathroom issue though.
> If you work in an office and you drink large
> amounts of juice, aren't you peeing all the time?

For me - Yes.
Since you know it makes you pee a lot, drink less juice.... I don't work in an office but I know at my job running to the bathroom 5 times an hour, every hour, every day.. would get me in trouble.
Blended Smoothies (with the fiber unlike juice) has the same effect on me.

I have had no problem going every hour in an office environment. I think that is acceptable, and I can drink a lot and manage hourly.
As for strange foods, I like to start easy in the beginning, salads, fruit, etc.... but give me time and I have my coworkers drinking green smoothies and trying raw chocolate cake (o:
Last time I started a new job I was 2 weeks into a juice feast (living on excessive amounts of juice). I manged to continue juicing, along with commuting an hour each way on the highway... my bladder ready to burst when I arrived at work... all a matter of priorities though. Juicing came first to me, work second. Anyways, I bought sparkling water in 1L glass jars, and reused those bottles to drink my green juice, that way my coworkers didn't have to see what I was drinking. And I didn't have to answer questions about my weird juice diet (or not right away at least).

Sunflower
Raw Food Chef and Writer
Comfortably Raw
[www.comfortablyraw.com]