Find Your Community!

You know that friend or family member who sees you take that second cookie and says, "Do you really need that?" I have one of those too (okay, I have a few of those) and I know that they are trying to help, but the problem is that they are actually not. I usually feel so self-conscious that when I'm around these people, I hardly eat anything at all. But that backfires because, after an evening of not eating anything, I feel sorry for myself, along with being massively hungry, so I indulge and gorge on whatever I want.

Apparently, I"m not alone with that. Studies have recently shown that having a friend or friends that treats you like this is very bad for your health and people who are trying to lose weight end up losing less or even putting on weight from having these bad influences in your life.

That's not to say that you should avoid these people altogether, but you may want to cut back and try to avoid meeting them during mealtimes. Try to arrange meetings when you know that food isn't really something you will be spending your time doing, maybe finding an active meeting place, like the beach or mini golf.

Some people though can be a real asset when you are trying to lose wait. I've actually found that not having people to talk to face to face helps a lot. When I have a real life workout buddy, I feel that we are always competing. I've never found a weight loss buddy in my real life friends because we are all at different weight levels and some of the things that they do, I just can't do yet. Which is why the internet is my weight loss buddy.

My favorite (and free) site is sparkpeople.com because you can not only track your weight, your food, and your exercise, but also talk on message boards and talk directly to your weight loss buddies. People can send you motivational gifts, ask you questions, and give you answers. And you can form your own support groups to give you more people to be held accountable to.

I would definitely recommend signing up, but if Spark People is not your thing, there are plenty of sites like it to track on. But definitely look for the community aspect. It can help more than you know!