How To Stay The Course While Surrounded By Temptations

I know it's hard to stay on any diet while in a family or group setting. I was raising my own 3 kids and running a day care so I was up to my elbows in food 12 hours a day when I was losing my weight. It was tough and I tripped up more then a few times, but I never let it discourage me. You just keep going and doing your best and eventually you get to where you want to be.

Losing and maintaining a weight loss is a job. It's not a temporary job either. It's a life choice and you do it alone for the most part. We are all obligated to make choices for our own best interest if we want to experience good health. If a person lived in a house with smokers, are they obligated to smoke too? They may be more inclined to, but they can choose for themselves if they value their health more then they value being part of the group. Just like that question parents have always asked their kids, "If all your friends were jumping off a cliff, would you jump too?". The same applies to dietary choices. It may be hard to say no to junk food if it is all around your environment, but you are never obligated to put anything in your mouth that you know is potentially harmful to your body. Be your own best advocate!

When you watch one of those TV shows that is about the super obese and how they got that way, that person may share a story of past personal trauma, but then you will often see that the entire family unit is super obese as well, including the previous AND the next generation! This is not necessarily due to one single event or to heredity, but more likely learned behaviors and habits, not to mention the house culture. No parent makes a point of teaching their child how to overeat and become obese. It happens day by day through example and often through issues like co-dependency among family members.

Of course, there is the exception and I am one of them. In a family of 4 siblings, I was the youngest and the only one, other then my mother, with a weight problem . We all ate the exact same thing, no exceptions. No snacking or getting food for ourselves...just what my mom put before us. I was chubby from birth. I inherited my mother's health issues too. She and I battled weight, high blood pressure, and heart problems together, while everyone else in the family was perfectly healthy. I was also a tomboy as she had been, always moving and playing sports, never sedentary, unlike my siblings who were, for the most part, a sedentary bunch. It never made sense, but in our case, heredity played a part. She inherited it from her father.

No matter what hand life has dealt us, we all still have choices to make regarding our personal issues and striving for the best health and quality of life we can. Losing weight is hard, even harder when you are doing it alone in an environment of others that eat mindlessly, but never underestimate your ability to manage or change your own life.