Get a Health Partner!

My "fat" friends from over the years will tell you that most of the time they fail in their dieting efforts because they didn't have anyone that supported their efforts and pushed them to stick with it when they needed it.
It's hard to stick to a diet when your spouse or best friends say they want to order pizza two days after you started the diet "that I swear is gonna work this time". ... We have so many people all around us that will crinkle their noses and say ... "diet, your on another new diet?" ... "wow, all your gonna have is baked chicken and broccoli for lunch?" .... "one cupcake won't hurt" .... and my favorite "you're shopping the health food section, what a waste of money".
Yup, the critics are everywhere. Even when they say nothing at all, you can see the words plastered all over their faces .... but let me tell you, they aren't giving you that look because you are doing anything wrong ... they are giving you that look because they want you to fail. They don't want the fat girl to lose weight ... it's that simple. The more we learn and the healthier we get, the more we want to share what we've learned.
But be careful, people don't want the fat chick to tell them how to eat, they don't want to change the way they are living. Essentially, by setting you up to fail or putting down what you learned, they are protecting the choices they are making because THEY don't want to put down the cupcakes. They want to be confident that the cupcake won't hurt THEM.

That is why it is so important to have a health BUDDY that supports you!!

When I started diets in the past, my husband was always the bad influence that got me off of it. .... Let's face it .... we were both the bad influences on my diet ..... I'd lose 8 - 10lbs and quit. The moment I said, hey let's go to Dairy Queen ... "I'm IN" he'd say and that would be the end of it. .... off the wagon I'd fall, go rolling down the hill into the river of soda on my raft of white bread. Okay, so it may be bad imagery, but it's true.
But, when I first got my full diagnosis from Lew-Ann, Stephen looked at me and said "okay, no more games, it's time to make real changes". He took me out for my last meal for lunch that day, and even then with the shocking news, I couldn't eat many things on my plate just thinking about what it was doing to me. Every grain of rice on my plate looked like a grain of fat that would wind up on my gut. ...
That's when I knew my life would change forever. I got no joy out of that food ... lunch was a disaster.

Since then, when I want to break down and eat some cookies, Stephen will smile, kiss my forehead and say "no" ;) . Not only that, he eats whatever he wants when he's at work or when I'm not around .... or when we go out to eat. But when we are at home preparing meals, he eats what I eat and doesn't complain. He doesn't say, "man, I don't want quinoa pasta with low fat spaghetti sauce and sautéed mushrooms .... I want pizza" .... and he doesn't turn up his nose at my fried chicken coated with garbanzo bean flour with a side of garlic broccoli and steamed squash. He enjoys the food ... it is really good BTW! He doesn't try and get me to snack late at night, instead stopping me when I want one.

You need that support to stick with it and the self discipline not to convince them you have earned a cheat when you haven't. I've been guilty of that a few times. :)

If your husband/boyfriend isn't helping ... find a daughter, sister, mother, or friend you can buddy up with. Call or visit them on a consistent basis .... and get your family involved as well. For my family members that hate the idea of my diet, I pick the best recipes I've found and invite them over for dinner. I wait until the very end of the meal and ask them what they thought ... then reveal that everything they ate was 100% organic and healthy for them. ... The looks of shock and surprise never ceases to satisfy me ... I get lots of "what did you say that was?" ... "what kind of pasta was that?" .... "wow, I would have never known that was not regular white flour!".

Your buddy will eventually start to exercise with you too when you're ready. I'm just about there, I am now doing light exercise a few times a week after work with my buddy and we're doing well.