You CAN overcome unhealthy family and roommates

FedoraNinja

For the last 2 and a half months, one of my in-laws has been living with me and my husband. For the sake of her privacy, we'll call her Suzy.

Well, shortly after Suzy moved in with us, I decided to make the lifestyle changes necessary to get healthy. I started exercising every morning, counting calories, and really making a major effort to take better care of myself.

Suzy's generally a very nice person, but she's also overweight and unmotivated. And it's become obvious over the last few weeks that watching someone else tackle the problem head-on reminds her of that. It makes her uncomfortable, and, at least unconsciously, she'd clearly rather not watch someone else take the hard road to recovery.

Suzy's been an *awful* demotivator on my fitness journey.

Some of her unsolicited comments include gems like:

"Y'know, people really don't need to count calories. You could just eyeball it/ cut soda/ take supplements instead."
"I would never do strength training, because I don't want to end up being one of those super weird muscly girls." (Immediately after inquiring how my strength training workout went :grumble:)
"Oh come on. Just let me mix you a tiny drink. Seriously, what's a tiny drink going to hurt?"
"Oh, well at least you can have a decent sized portion of that!" (while watching me measure chicken breast)
"Are you sure you don't want this ice cream? Absolutely sure? Positive? Well, you don't know what you're missing!"

Largely, I just ignored her and soldiered on. But on a day when you're already exhausted and struggling, it can hurt so bad to have someone chipping away at your resolve. There were days when Suzy's comments almost made me want to cry.

But slowly, surely, something magical happened...

It's only been a few weeks, but I'm starting to see my body changing. I've lost nearly 10 pounds, putting me almost a third of the way back to a healthy BMI. My pants are fitting looser. My endurance is getting better. I've locked in a habit of healthier eating and daily exercise.

In that time, Suzy hasn't lost any weight at all. She's in just as bad shape as she was when I started.

It's been long enough now that I know Suzy is never going to be a source of support on my fitness journey. She still makes negative comments daily, but it doesn't matter anymore. Do you know why?

Because I've come far enough to see that Suzy will never lose weight by dragging other people down.
Because I know I CAN do this, regardless of what she may say.
Because I'm strong and committed to making a better me.

I wanted to share my story with you all, because early on, it can be incredibly hard to have unsupportive people around you. It's hard to make those critical life changes changes when others are trying to convince you to stop.

To everyone going though a tough time: Soldier on. You can do this! Just take it one day at a time, and I promise you'll prove those naysayers wrong! :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:

phoo513

Thanks for sharing. You have a great attitude!