Living the Lifestyle (LTL) - Tuesday, June 6th

RedSassyPants

Everyone says it, but just how do you do it? How do you take the guidelines of the WW program and turn them into a lifestyle you can live every day...from now on? That is what we are here to explore. Each weekday, a new topic is offered up for discussion. Newbie? Join in! Veteran? Join in! Your thoughts may be just what someone else needs to hear.

Monday -- whathapnd (Emmie)
Tuesday -- RedSassyPants
Wednesday -- minimyzeme (Kim)
Thursday -- Wild Card Day--open to anyone who grabs it!
Friday -- Tripaway

Today's topic: Strength in Numbers

Obviously, we all find social support important to our journey because....well...here we all are. GOAD has been am important part of my journey. I love the support. So the question is:
WHERE ELSE DO YOU LOOK FOR SUPPORT? AND Can you succeed if you DON"T have it?
Examine the following:
1) Family
2) Friends
3) Work
4) Meetings (WW etc)
5) Other Social Media Groups

RedSassyPants

I am fortunate enough to work in a gym. EVERYONE around me is there to help and they all want me to succeed. Great when I am doing well and feel in control. When I am not...they certainly help motivate me to find that control again. Honestly, Not sure I could do it without them and my family

1) Family: My husband is doing a following a different plan than I am, however he has always been my biggest fan
2) Friends; Kind of non existent as far as this is concerned, but they do get annoyed if I don't want to go out to eat or to a bar.
3) Work: Made that clear before
4) I do not attend any
5) Social Media helps me realize I am not alone. I might look at other sites but GOAD will always be my favoite

Out_of_Bubblegum

My support system:

1. Family - Not really much support so far.. I get the occasional comment about how I'm looking good, or that I'm doing a good job... but then I get teased about weighing my food, and being "obsessed" in the next sentence, so it's a wash at best. What is interesting though, is I caught my wife portioning out her food last night....
2. Friends I have some martial arts friends that I work out with regularly. We focus more on the learning and application, but fitness comes as a close 2nd.
3. Work - Not so much. I've noticed and even approached a few folks I know who like to keep fit, but they seem to be on their own journey, and not much interested in mine. Most folks here tend to keep to work subjects.
4. Meetings - N/A.
5. Social Media: MFP/GOAD. This is a place where I get to unload on people who get it, listen to those who are successful, and learn how to be successful in my WL and fitness goals. As a bonus, I get a lot of cheerleaders telling me great job when I reach milestones.

Rachel0778

1) Family- My Mom is a huge support. She is always up for healthy places to eat and healthy substitutions. My family gatherings always have healthy options and very few of my family members are even overweight.

2) Friends- When I first started losing weight, this category was a challenge. I had one friend in particular who had a tough time adjusting to the fact that we are no longer "eating buddies". She has since adjusted, lost 40lbs of her own, and we now do workouts and cook healthy meals together. New friends I meet just know me as their fit friend.

3) Work- My coworkers are awesome cooks and I literally have a full food court within 20ft of my office. But I've set up rules and boundaries for myself. I don't eat at the food court, ever. I don't need to waste the money, let alone the calories. If my coworker makes a treat, I take one home for my nighttime indulgence. That way I can only have one and I don't feel deprived

4) Meetings (WW etc)- I don't go to any meetings currently. I live in a small(er) community and I was less than impressed with our WW meeting. It's held in a older adult Christian center, so you can guess the average age of the group.

5) Other Social Media Groups- I like No Finish Line Nation on Facebook. They share some fabulous recipes and great inspiration photos.

gadgetgirlIL

1) Family - my DH is very supportive, both with my eating patterns/choices as well as being supportive of my crazy endurance activities

2) Friends - I have a couple of close friends who share my journey and the often daily challenges of living a healthy lifestyle.

3) Work - At both of my work locations there are refrigerators and microwaves which support my ability to bring my own food to work. I don't have any food pushers at work.

4) Meetings (WW etc) - haven't gone in several years. I liked my leader but the meeting times started to conflict with my endurance activities on weekends. I get more mental benefit getting outside in nature than sitting in a meeting.

5) Other Social Media Groups - I'm in a couple of other private groups on FaceBook which are helpful. One of the groups has friends who I also know in real life.

Al_Howard

1) Family TOL's re-claimed Lifetime status, and wishes I did't need to still pay.
2) Friends Not really
3) Work Not applicable
4) Meetings (WW etc) Go to meetings about 50 weeks a year.
5) Other Social Media Groups GoaD here and of FB.

goldenfrisbee

1) Family: I work with my brothers and they are always encouraging when I'm trying to lose weight. My wife is doing this with me again, so that is also a help
2) Friends: I haven't told anyone I'm trying to lose
3) Work: Work with family so same as #1
4) Meetings (WW etc): No meetings
5) Other Social Media Groups: GOAD has been as important to me as my family. No other social media. Once in awhile I'll check on Success Stories on MFP.

Jimb376mfp

1) Family DW joined WW with me for morale support. She has been a goal and is an inspiration to me when it comes to discipline and exercise. I know my three sons are all happy that I finally did something about my weight/health.

2) Friends: my two social groups are dog park group and aqua aerobics classes.
3) Work Retired
4) Meetings (WW etc) Yes, great WW ML and fun group.
5) Other Social Media Groups: WW Connect, FB GoaDs and MFP groups like Challenge page, and success stories and pics.

linmueller

1) Family - they're amazing! DH does whatever it takes to support me. He'll grill, keep temptation out of the house, eat out where I feel like I can be successful. He encourages me and compliments changes he notices. I couldn't ask for more! My kids and DIL are also very supportive and encouraging. My parents, not so much. To them, food is love, but they mean well.

2) Friends - I have great friends! All supportive or neutral, but no sabotaging.

4) Meetings (WW etc) - I love my WW group! My 8 a.m. meeting and the 9:30 share a FB page. It's really active and there are often challenges (hence no sugary foods this week). We also have Fitbit challenges going (got me walking 10,000 steps). With this great group, and awesome leader, I have no excuse to be anything but successful! (That's eye opening )

DavidKuhnsSr

Family, for sure. My wife has been a huge help from the beginning. I get plenty of encouragement from my son and a wonderful daughter in law, too.

Other than the Men's Health group, here on MFP, I get no help or support from anyone else. I no longer attend WW meedings, and those I know at church, etc. never knew me gfat, so they have nothing t support, as far as they know.

minimyzeme

1) Family - My partner is a pillar of support, quite literally. She does the shopping, food prep and cooking (not to mention much of my weighing and measuring). When I started WW three years ago, I wasn't sure she was going to be willing to do all that. I decided that if need be, I'd still find a way to make it work. Thankfully, it didn't come to that. I'd like to think I would still do what's needed "if need be", but thanks to her willingness to do everything but eating the food for me, I haven't had to find out.

I have a couple sisters who were in and out of WW for a while. The have both since left the program and unfortunately, have also put some of the weight back on. One is more actively working at losing now than the other, but both are supportive of me. We do have some discussions about what works and what doesn't. Their situations help keep me in the game another day...

2) Friends - Not a lot. One joined WW based on my results, got to goal and maintained for a while. Now he's quit WW altogether and...starting to gain back a little weight. One friend is a cardiac anesthetist at a major hospital. He was / is very supportive and also told me it's very uncommon for people over 50 to lose and keep the weight off. I inspired another friend to join WW and she got to her goal about a month ago. We talk alot about the importance of maintenance and NOT going back to our old ways.

3) Work - Moreso when I was losing than now, co-workers and clients would compliment me on the weight loss. Not so much anymore since I've been this size for over a year now.

4) Meetings (WW etc) - Nope

5) Other Social Media Groups - None. Oh wait a minute! I actually have been perusing Connect the last couple weeks. It's been a very cool, dark Spring here which, combined with other things leaves me a bit depressed. There are some amazing success stories there that much to my surprise, I find very uplifting. As discussed here before, I don't think it's the same purpose as the message boards, but I think there it does serve a helpful function for those of us on this road.

Could I survive without the support?? I think I could. I can't really explain it but the switch flipped for me with WW. That's not to say there's never any temptation or that I don't color outside the lines from time to time. But I don't think I need cheerleaders, high-fives, etc. I like the things my trimmed down body can do (other than I'm cold way more than I ever used to be). I like fitting into smaller, more colorful and better proportioned clothes than the dark, baggy stuff I used to wear. These things and more I think could carry me even without attaboys from the other various sources. But I'd be lying if I said they don't help somewhat.

Al_Howard

Lin Mueller said 4) Meetings (WW etc) - I love my WW group! My 8 a.m. meeting and the 9:30 share a FB page. It's really active and there are often challenges (hence no sugary foods this week). We also have Fitbit challenges going (got me walking 10,000 steps). With this great group, and awesome leader, I have no excuse to be anything but successful! (That's eye opening )
I forgot, my ML has a FB page for all her meeting peeps.

minimyzeme

I must have been a bit brain-dead when I replied last night! What the hell was I thinking?? I have a great WW group! Fantastic leader and now at least, a really interactive and supportive group. I don't know how I blazed right over that last night but I'm very grateful for that leg of support!

podkey

DW is supportive and I support her. I like my WW meetings very much. They support me and I support them.

MurpleCat

1) Family: Mom is a great supporter, sounding board, and all around confidant. She actively seeks ways to help me when I'm visiting (walking buddy, asks what foods to have in the house, etc.). The rest of my family are passively supportive; that is, they are generally in favor of my efforts but aren't actively involved/ responsive. That's fine, they have their own stuff to deal with.

2) Friends: again, friends are passively supportive to neutral. They are happy to go on hikes with me, some took tennis lessons with me, others played volleyball with me, but that's because they wanted to do those things independent of whether it was helping my weight loss. They're just fun things to do. A few will think about menus when suggesting restaurants, and ask "Is this place ok?" but most just leave me to deal with it, and speak up if there's a problem. They're agreeable if I say, "Look, that all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet doesn't really work for me. Can we go to this place instead?" So they're supportive without it really being their priority, and that's fine. I certainly don't have anyone actively trying to be jerk to me about it. They wouldn't be my friend very long if they were jerks.

3) Work: I've gotten lots of compliments at work, and a few people commenting about my pre-measured lunches and so on, but generally its not a topic of discussion.

4) Meetings (WW etc): I don't go any more. I meet regularly (at this point, once a quarter) with my health care team but its not specific to weight loss.

5) Other Social Media Groups: I have a group of FB friends that is started out as a weight-loss discussion board, and has shaded into other areas of life (as we noted in a previous LTL thread, everything really is connected). I'm on the FB GoaD board too but not particularly active on that one.

MurpleCat

Oh -- could I succeed without the support? Probably not. Honestly it wouldn't have to be THESE people specifically, but if I didn't have ANYONE to talk to about my stuff, my head would explode. I'd need to find a new group and/or hire a therapist.

Murple

imastar2

1) Family--DW is just about it.
2) Friends-- Not so much just encouragement along the way.
3) Work--Not so much here at all.
4) Meetings--I'm online only so GoaD is just about it.
5) Other Social Media Groups-- None

6) Working with a hospital sponsored dietitian once a month.