8 Ways to Contribute to The Success of Loved Ones On A Healthy Weight Journey
Consider that diet change is a lifestyle change before the very thought of mere exercise ever emerges for some. The hurdles of temptation and discouragement frequently throw so many off this commonly traveled journey toward total health.
For someone on a mission to achieve a healthier weight, the motivation needed from an inner circle is often in forms of resourcefulness, uplifting testimonials, and availability of team effort - all wrapped within the priceless quality of tactfulness. To experience the involvement of well-meaning loved ones on a path toward healthy weight achievement is a luxury for some and a hindrance for others. While dieters' challenges exist in almost every angle of their journey, the challenge that eager pseudo-coaches face is the skill of translating their genuine desire to help into effective communication.
Before trying to help a loved one achieve their goal for healthier weight, always encourage him/her to consult primarily with a physician about all efforts, speak with a Pediatrician if the loved one happens to be your child, and consider the following:
1) Be a positive contributor rather than a hindrance.
If you live in the same household with the dieter (for lack of a more fitting label), be willing to eat similar healthy choices. This creates a home environment of extra motivation and support. Too often I've witnessed the struggles of others trying to maintain healthy diets while watching people around them indulge in tempting foods.
One of the most insensitive behaviors I've seen done against someone dieting for bonafide health reasons was witnessing others eating desserts closely and directly in the person's presence. (How considerate would we be to drink in the presence of an alcoholic on a mission to heal?)
When I try to recall, I actually hope I wasn't one of those being insensitive toward a dieter. Sadly, I just can't say that I've always been sensitive to their battles. It's so easy to forget the selfless choices that matter to somebody else.
Medical patients of various types need support with extra effort. To facilitate a home environment full of tempting foods only places on them additional pressures that shouldn't accompany their health challenges. For your love of their lives, acquire taste for natural clean foods, various herbal teas, and water.
While practicing all their don'ts with them, focus on a wide range of good healthy do's. This will likely not only enhance their health as well as your own but also motivate the entire household team aiming for healthier lifestyles.
2) Create an environment of exercise and activity
with lots of motivating strategy - but with few words.
Promote team exercise making yourself an active participant (as much as your physical state will allow). Telling a dieter to exercise is the easiest task in a discussion about their weight-loss journey. Such "coaching" requires neither energy nor carefully planned strategy. Yet this is one of the most common go-to nuggets of advice given to someone on a weight-loss mission.
Offer to take walks with your dieting loved ones. Also, dance with them if they're unmotivated to do structured activities. Organize the house together, build together, do gardening together, or suggest painting some rooms together. A few efforts of creative planning can produce gradual, effective results.
3) Understand that discouraging remarks and nagging
cause stress that may produce belly fattening cortisol.
Stress produces cortisol, which builds fat right around the belly. (It gets me every time!) So, don't nag a dieter. I forget this because I nag my son about his need to gain weight (with healthy choices) due to football. (Even though cortisol never gets to that youngster for a number of reasons like his age and muscle-building activities, there are more effective options to my nagging which I continually aim to discover.)
If you want to counter your loved one's potential of traveling a road toward results, you are likely to do so with constant reminders, interrogations, and expressions of frustration that all relate to his/her attempts to lose or gain weight. And don't think passive aggression, sarcasm, or other efforts believed to be subtle will help. They only discourage mostly.
4) Compare your loved one to nobody who seems
"better off" health-wise or appearance-wise.
This form of degrading can produce such eating disorders as bulimia. These disorders involve poor self-image with added comparing, beginning with reflections in the mirror.
5) Don't push the panic button if you see your loved one
eating any kind of food at all.
There's a more effective approach to helping in the food department. Unless you are dealing with a serious health crisis (or a stubborn athlete, for example, who won't eat enough), practice the minimization of mentioning the needed weight change. But you don't have to be discouraged into thinking that your part just stops there.
Promote a better option than restriction. Promote healthy eating instead. One of the most effective ways of promoting it is exposing it to the dieter. Take the person out to a health food restaurant that has delicious menu selections. Cook something healthy and delicious. Keep healthy snacks out on the table. (If your loved one in need of healthier weight is a child, rest assured that such snacks as frozen blueberries are a hit with youngsters.)
Countless dieters can attest to the discovery that access to a wide range of healthy eating options far outweighs restriction with greater weight-loss results, healthier weight-gain results, and perseverance.
6) Make yourself available as a valuable resource.
Be a point of reference for your loved one. Keep yourself well-informed with thorough research. Should he or she ever express any number of concerns on their journey toward healthier living, you can take that opportunity to share information beginning with such statements as, "You know, I read about this in <article> and here's what was said about your concern..." It's an approach that may come across as easy to hear and doable instead of as finger-pointing communication.
7) Under the direction of a physician, of course, make an investment in those weight-impacting products that promote lifestyle change for the entire family:
-----Make some tea or tea mixtures. For weight loss, the following teas support the metabolism, as experienced by myself and many on the weight-loss journey: Green tea, fresh ginger made into tea or the tea bags, Garcinia Cambogia, and mint for taste. For weight gain, the following methods help me with two of my sons: Iced herbal tea mixtures with lemon and moderate honey as well as teas that stimulate the appetite like peppermint and dandelion. (Sadly, I really have little evidence of their appetites being as stimulated by these as mine has been. So defeating sometimes!)
-----Encourage plentiful water-drinking by maybe "seasoning" distilled water with lemon, lime, cucumber, melon slices, mint, or a mixture. With healthy diet and exercise, drinking 64 plus ounces of water throughout everyday further increases the chance of reaching and maintaining healthy weight.
-----Probiotic Prebiotics contain a friendly bacteria known as lactobacillus gasseri that help the body's digestion to the point of noticeable results on the scale. (1234 Probiotic Prebiotics is the product I use, never missing a beat on taking them as they have been effective for both me and my oldest son.) Most probiotics, though found to be healthy, do not contain this form of friendly bacteria. In fact, they also help with digestion for anyone and are helpful for the health of those attempting weight gain - and are especially essential if those weight-gain efforts involve unhealthy foods.
-----Omega 3 Fatty Acids are excellent for weight loss. Flaxseed oil and wild caught fish are commonly recommended and are available in gel caps.
-----Is your loved one stressed out and over the age of 17? Rhodiola Rosea is commonly recommended by health experts to decrease the affects of cortisol that causes flab in the belly area. This has worked on my oldest son and myself by the time we were well into each of our 2nd bottles.
-----Chlorella provides (as a small supplementation) much needed nutrients that are available through regular consumption of green veggies. Consider that this supplement does not replace those veggies but definitely benefits us for any lifestyle change when taken on a regular basis. Nutrients that are available through green veggies and chlorella promote weight loss.
-----For weight loss, promote early sleeping habits. Regularly going to bed by 8 for kids and by some time within the 10 o'clock hour for adults has resulted in a key breakthrough for many, including myself. Eight hours of sleep that begins early supports our metabolism and is commonly reported by health bloggers as a missing puzzle piece to shedding a few stubborn pounds.
Be the gift your loved one needs in order to overcome the challenge of achieving healthy weight. Just as their journey is doable, these are a few pointers on how yours can also be very doable as their accountability partner.
About YvonneRobert
I'm the woman of the house and nurturer (a.k.a WOTHAN), a Christian writer, and a salad-eater simply because I am on a journey toward a healthier lifestyle like many of our readers.