AIBU to say "JUST EAT THE FU***NG CHEESE THEN!"

[JustSaltPlease]

Slightly dramatic title but honestly, my colleague is grating on me.

She is a vegetarian and every January she takes part in Veganuary.

We receive several photos and updates on what she is making for dinner/lunch etc each day and she talks quite a lot about it. I get it, when people are on diets they act the same I guess.

What is really boiling my piss, is that everything I bring to lunch she comments on.

Today is a cheese salad

"OMG I really miss cheese, I so wish I could eat cheese, this is so triggering" (triggering part is said light heartedly.

Yesterday I had a yoghurt and the conversation goes the same way.

Just eat the fucking cheese, why are you depriving yourself so much, for what? Veganuary? Is it worth it?

I just don't get why people do these things and then bitch about it every day. If you want it, have it. Life is too short!

Also, there can't be too many Dorises still with us, surely? She must be beyond retirement age! I’m well past retirement age. Doris is my grandmother’s generation

Great post OP. Once had someone in my office doing some strange limbering up exercises with a pained expression. Bit distracting in my peripheral vision so asked them if they were ok. They had terrible backache so I asked if they'd taken any pain relief. Oh no! They couldn't possibly do that as they prefer a natural approach. I think I just said some sympathetic words when what I really wanted to say was "enjoy your backache then".

Some very good suggestions on here and I'd go with the taking a beautiful cheese platter into work for your lunch and when she comments on it, getting up and walking away in silence. After that, asking for two WhatsApp groups with one for work discussions and the other for informal stuff (and not be on that one yourself!). There are plenty of vegans who don't bang on about it all the time. She just wants attention really and to publicly polish her halo.

“Just pipe down and eat it then, dickhead. You realise your Veganuary nonsense is self-imposed?”

Or perhaps not.

This is good. I'd be split between that or just grey rocking the nonsense.
So when she starts going on about it, no reaction at all, then midway, clear my throat loudly and pick up my phone to make a work call. Because anything's better than listening to people bang on about their diets.

One of my friends started obsessing about food things a little while after separating from her husband. I was never aware of it being a thing with her before. Not sure if it's to do with controlling something in response to MH difficulty or just a symptom of there being less to distract her at home etc.

I hate it when colleagues talk about/ comment on what I am eating.

I used to work with someone who obsessively commented on everyone else's lunch.

She even made a thing of it - 'oh, I always have to know what everyone's got, give us a nosy!'

It was incredibly irritating.

She's a drainer...

What the hell's the point in giving up all animal products for one month of the year. It doesn't make her a vegan. It's just performance 'veganism', especially as she doesn't shut up about it.

There's absolutely nothing stopping her eating cheese and yoghurt, it's all very 'look at me' and frankly, pretty pointless if come February she's back on the dairy foods.

She sound very tedious and rather silly and you have every right to tell her to 'just eat the fucking cheese then', so yes, go ahead.

I’m surprised how many people find this annoying/ infuriating. I’d just be pleased I had someone that made an effort to talk to me and wasn’t bitching about someone/thing.

If people want to change their diet for whatever reason fine, don't expect a medal and constant praise for it though. I would probably tell her to please just eat some cheese rather than being a whiny martyr about eating different stuff for a month because she has chosen to do so.

Tell her you are doing Januhairy, where you don’t shave for a month in support of feminism!

Soya yoghurt is nice and I really love the violife vegan greek /feta cheese

Apart from the cost of soya yoghurt as opposed to Tesco (was 35p now 50p) plain yoghurt and vegan chocolate £2-3 per bar, I could be classified as vegan

Why doesn’t she have the vegan versions of cheese and yoghurt

“Dear veggo

you have 3 options here:

1. eat the cheese
2. dont eat the cheese and remain silent
3. est elsewhere

I will not tolerate being shamed for what I eat.

Kthxbye”

urgh how irritating. I had a colleague like this - she would sit with us for lunch and slag off our meat choices then when we did vegan month or whatever you call it, if we ever DARED to say how tasteless something was, we would get HOURS of preaching or articles sent to us about why the whole world should be vegan.

I went vegetarian many years ago because I realised the stomach issues I had suffered from all my life. I didn’t have when I ate a cheese sandwich as opposed to a chicken sandwich
My plan was to try being vegetarian for 1 month and see if it made a difference

I never went back to eating meat

I told no one what I was doing, not even dh

This is really disturbing advice. You’re telling OP to pretend to be worried about someone?!? That’s messed up

I'd be saying 'nobody's stopping you from eatting it but you, so not really worth saying out loud, is it!'.

I am going to disagree here.

We all need a part time vegan Doris in work/ or equivalent. Someone so ridiculous that makes your day way more bareable.
What would we do if it work would be just about work, rational thinking, and meetings you are losing the will to live?

We all need Doris. You go back to your desk after having a big laugh about the lunnies. Thanks Doris and your veganuary. Keep it up.

I’m seeing this as someone who is self obsessed and has nothing else to talk about other than what they are doing now.
Much the same as people endlessly talking about their holiday, their wedding, their kids, their baby etc etc.

Change the subject or move away.

"No offence, Deb, but could we kerb the diet/cheese related talk? It's a bit annoying 🙈😂."

Lots of people find vegan cheese gross, including me
The yoghurt has come a long way in the first years it was introduced in that it no longer tastes like a mix of sugar and cardboard. So at least there’s that now.
But cheese……no!

This is why I work for myself, she sounds like one of the most annoying people in the world

No one needs this.

It doesn't make life more enjoyable or funny...it's just really fucking tedious.

If we didn't have Doris we'd have peace and better things to smile at. Our eyes would be better rested from not having to roll as much. Our lungs would function better from not sighing as hard. Migraines would be less and thumbs would ache less from not having to send endless thumbs ups or banal emojiis
to give desperate Doris her daily dose of dopamine.

Down with Doris.

You want to egg her on, in other words?

Let her know she doesn’t have to miss out but that there’s lots of really bad vegan cheese out there. Fortunately there’s some delicious cheeses out there too, which she can get online or in supermarkets from https://www.iamnutok.com/ or lafauxmagerie.com/

I think you should treat everyone to a cream cake, and give Doris a plain cream cracker.