My (28 M) girlfriend (25 F) is constantly criticizing my food choices and it's causing a big problem in our relationship

Tl;dr at the bottom

This is a long post with background info so bear with me.

My girlfriend and I have been going out for 10 months now and about 6 months in I lost my job due to COVID so we were spending a lot more time together and I think this is when she noticed my diet. A couple of disclaimers before I go further. First, I freely admit my diet was not the best before I met her. Second, her Dad is a diabetic so I think that's where some of this is coming from.

Anyways, long story short I changed my diet at her urging a good deal. I cut back heavily on fried food (down to once or twice a month from multiple times a week), added more fruits and vegetables (apple and banana everyday at least along with veggies multiple times a week) where before it was very little, and I also cut back on pasta and added in more turkey, chicken and fish. For reference, I'm not skinny but I'm not obese either. If anything, I could stand to lose about 15 or 20 pounds since the pandemic started but otherwise I'm completely healthy and she knows this. For her diet she eats exclusively fish, chicken and caesar salad while exercising an hour per day. I am unable to exercise that much due to bad knees that I both inherited and previously injured which she is also aware of.

However, over the past month or so she has started heavily criticizing my diet again unprompted to the point where she does it every single meal she sees me eat. Things like "Do you really need that much bread?" When it would be my second piece at a restaurant and she eats the rest of the basket. Or "You already had red meat this week." Things like that. Whenever I hold firm she immediately starts acting like a child who doesn't get her way. She'll start blaming me, saying it's my fault we're arguing. She'll say she's unhappy and that she can't take much more of this, and other things that threaten the relationship. I'll point out the very obvious double standard but that only makes her angrier and as this is my first relationship I don't know what to do but let it go for fear of making it worse.

I finally decided enough was enough when on Friday we went out on a date night that was also a trip to pick up a cake for her parent's birthday at a restaurant she had never been to (we are from different towns and she lives 40 mins away. Also, my Mom got this cake and brought it one time and my gf really liked it). I decided to get the roast prime rib as I hadn't had it in a very long time from there. She immediately questions it and I stand my ground so to speak but I also get broccoli with it to calm her down. She then starts crying as soon as the waitress leaves, and says things like "I don't want to be here, I just want to go home" and "If you get mad at me, I'm going to call my Dad to pick me up" all while still crying. I basically told her that this has to stop and that I can't deal with her criticizing my meals every day.

Fast forward to after the worst dinner I've ever had, and we make it back to her parents house. I go to her Mom thinking maybe she can talk some sense into her because I've been trying to do it for the past week with no success and tell her what happened. Her Mom agrees with me and basically says to my girlfriend "You can't tell other people what to do, it's going to make them do the opposite and if you continue to do this you can't be in a relationship with anyone."

Yesterday she was fine and it seemed like she had taken the message to heart. However, at dinner tonight she went right back to her old self and I feel like I'm out of options. I don't want to break up with her because I still love her but I also can't take the constant criticism. I have a million other things to worry about now between working a full-time job again that is actually a career and going to school full-time as well on top of that then to have to worry about "What is my girlfriend going to think about this choice?"

I know this may seem silly but it has gotten to the point where 95% of our fights are this issue and I feel like I'm doing nothing but sitting, eating, and minding my own business. I have already done an almost 180 from where my diet previously was and I've pointed this out to her many times. I feel like if I give in to her she'll just find something to criticize about my next meal and it will be a never ending cycle. I'm really at my breaking point and I don't know what to do. Any help is much appreciated.

Tl;dr: My girlfriend is constantly criticizing my food choices every day and it's causing a massive problem in the relationship.

Submitted January 31, 2021 at 07:13PM by patsfan929 https://ift.tt/3tdpP2u