Your Support System-How Family, Friends and a Coach Can Help

You've Got a Friend

You are changing your life. Changing your life means changing your habits. Changing your habits is easier with support. Support for your change can come from many sources. Your family and friends, websites, books, support groups and weight loss and wellness professionals are all examples of people who could help and support you.

These helping relationships are vital when you are transforming your life. Becoming the best you possible requires a lot of effort and you inevitably run into obstacles. The thing is, most people try to overcome all their obstacles themselves. You don’t need to.

Let others help you overcome your obstacles. We are all interdependent. We live our lives in relation to one another. It is a sign of maturity and wisdom to recognize this and reach out to others for the help and support we need.

Just because you are being helped and supported doesn’t mean you get to slack off. No one can do the work for you. A friend, mentor or coach can give you a hand, but it is your motivation and desire to change which moves you forward.

Go Public

It is important to go public with your weight loss and wellness intentions. We can only expect help from those who know we are changing our lives. Let strategic people in on your plan to improve your life. These should be people in a position to help, like spouses, children, friends, co-workers, and your personal wellness coach.

In fact, it is absolutely essential to let the people you live and work with in on your plan. These people are such a big part of your life, and when your life changes their lives will as well. And as you know, people tend to be a little resistant to change. If you let your family in on how you plan to change, they can anticipate and plan for how their lives will change.

There is nothing worse than having a family member or co-worker sabotage your best efforts at a better life. Letting them know you are going to change and enrolling them as a helper is important.

It is a great idea to define the nature of the helping relationship. Let your helpers know what appropriate helping behavior is. Scolding, nagging, ridiculing, chastising and embarrassing are not forms of support. Gently reminding you of who you want to be when you slip up and congratulating and celebrating your successes are helpful and supportive.

A little help from a friend goes a long way towards our goal achievement. Not only should you harness the power of helping relationships, you should use books and websites support your change.

Why Reinvent the Wheel?

There are countless people who have been successful making the exact changes you want to make, and they have lived to tell about it. Read their books. Visit their websites. Learn from those who have gone before you.

Books

Books can be a big help while changing your life. Books can motivate you with inspiring stories of people just like you. Books can educate you. There are great books on how your body works, how to eat for optimal health and longevity, how to get the most from your workouts, how to manage your time and set goals, how to live your best life, how to… et. cetera, ad infinitum. Books are great because you can pick them up almost anytime and anywhere.

Some of our favorites are:

• Eat to Live: The Revolutionary Formula for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss

• In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

• Younger Next Year: Live Strong, Fit, and Sexy—Until You're 80 and Beyond

• The Thrive Diet

• The Mcdougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss

• Healthy at 100: The Scientifically Proven Secrets of the World's Healthiest and Longest-Lived Peoples

Websites

Websites have a lot in common with books. You can find all sorts of information on the web to educate, motivate and inspire you. Another thing the web offers are virtual communities. The internet makes it easy to connect to others pursuing the same goals you are. The two most popular places on the net to connect are: http://groups.google.com, and, http://groups.yahoo.com.

Professional Help

Want support, guidance and accountability? A weight loss and wellness coach can help. Many people find they reach there goals much more quickly and with fewer setbacks and slip-ups when they work with a professional to achieve their goals. This is a fantastic option for busy people who don’t have the desire or time to read a dozen books and spend hours surfing the web before they get started. A weight loss and wellness professional (like me) can get you going today and give you the tools and the “just in time” education you need to succeed.

As your coach we will help you achieve your weight loss and wellness goals by helping you with fitness, nutrition/diet, stress management and behavior change through lifestyle management. Our goal is your success. Find out more about weight loss and wellness coaching.

It Is All About You

In the end, the most important person you need to help, support, and nurture to your best life is you. You are the most important person in your life. Support yourself with kind, affirming words, be gentle with yourself when you slip up, pat yourself on the back when you are successful. Create a 3 × 5 index card with your personal motivation to change. Include all the benefits of changing. Carry this card with you and look at it often to remind you of who you want to be. You are becoming healthy and fit for you. Love yourself and enjoy the process.