It’s hard enough convincing ourselves every day to stick to our healthy eating program, before other people get involved. You may have someone in your life who just doesn’t understand the lifestyle choice you’ve made to be healthy. “You can skip your diet just for one night!”, “Just have one bite”, or “You don’t need to lose weight!”. Although it probably doesn’t come from a malicious place, these diet saboteurs can bring us stress, guilt, or cause us to go off track. So, what can we do to take power back over our diet?
- Stay Under the Radar: If you think that a certain person or group of people may not support your lifestyle choices, don’t advertise it to them. If they don’t know that you’re on a lifestyle program, they may not notice your food choices. Don’t give them permission to offer their opinion if it is not warranted.
- Be creative about saying ‘No’: Don’t feel the need to explain yourself or your food choices when people offer you food. A simple, ‘no, thanks!’, ‘not right now’, or ‘I’m not in the mood’, can be safer than saying ‘I’m on a diet’ or ‘I’m watching my weight’. That way the conversation can move onto something else instead of lingering around the topic of food.
- Ask People To Split Meals: If you want to be social and participate in the meal with everyone else, ask someone to split a dish with you. Or, wrap some of it up and take it home to give to someone else. If it’s a dessert someone is offering you, offering to split it or just taking a few bites could be enough to keep you on track and keep everyone else satisfied.
- Empower Yourself: The choice you’ve made to eat healthy is individual to you. Be proud of yourself for taking care of your body and that will help you to exude confidence about nutrition! You don’t know anyone else’s food journey, just like they don’t know yours. Other people simply may not understand why some choose to eat healthy and if they did, maybe they would feel differently! But, it isn’t your responsibility to make other people understand. Focus on what makes you happy and healthy!
- Surround Yourself with Supportive People: It’s harder to be sabotaged when you have like minded people by your side! If you’re in need of a group of other nutrition lovers, join our Facebook group: FoodandFitnessPro Health Warriors!!
FoodandFitnessPro is an award-winning team of health professionals and registered dietitian-nutritionists. We’re here to ensure you look and feel your best while living a healthy lifestyle. We can help you manage a health condition, develop a realistic food relationship and reach your weight loss goals.
