Damn, Zoulie, you sound like me.

No kidding.  Besides, being hit in the head with a shoe probably
won't hurt me long-term either, but if you throw one at me, I'm still
going to duck.

I always hate to shoot down someone who's trying, so if someone tells
me she cut back from three sodas a day to three/week, I'm going to
congratulate her, even though I know it's not going to make much
difference in the insulin/weight-loss sense of things.  Or like a
couple people I know who cut out all carby solid foods like pasta and
bread, but still drink a regular soda every day -- they're almost
wasting their time, but bluntly telling them that isn't going to help.

I try something like, "Wow, that's a great start; are you feeling a
difference yet?  Maybe it'll be easier giving things up gradually like
that instead of all at once."  I know it won't be, but that introduces
them to the idea that low-carbing doesn't work on a scale like all
their other Oprah diet theories -- if you've been eating 400g of carbs
a day, going to 200g doesn't give you half the weight loss.  People
who picked up low-carbing by word of mouth -- a co-worker's friend's
aunt lost 50 pounds on Atkins -- usually don't know that, so it's best
to break it to them gently.