Family Time

One of the biggest detriments to any diet may be the people who love you most. Your family, friends - whatever your support system - may do more harm than good. There are two types of family defeaters

1. Intentional saboteurs
2. Well meaning enablers

Find out which you have in your life and then find a way to work around them.

Why am I bringing this up, you might ask?

I'm home in Florida for a few days this week. While here I make the rounds to visit my extensive family and a few friends. My family is mostly of the well meaning variety. For example, I had lunch with my dad who is supportive of my getting in shape and losing weight. He fights the weight battle himself though he gets tons more exercise than I do. So we had a healthy lunch, chef salad with shrimp cocktail to start. Very healthy.

But dad has a bit of a sweet tooth and wants to take care of people. This means that he is always offering a drink or dessert. Knowing that for decades all of his kids have been big soda drinkers, he tends to have a variety on hand when we visit. I think it hurts his feelings when I said no thank you (about 6 times) and explained that I am off sugar.

Still, dessert was another story and I have to admit that I caved when he brought out the Boston cream Little Debbie's. I only had one but after more than a week without processed sugar I thought my system was going to overload from the sugar high.

The thing is, he means well, family usually do. No one likes to see others having to deprive themselves. It hurts us to see the people we love unhappy and most dieters are unhappy because of deprivation.

Take a look at your support system and the people you encounter every day - at home, at work or during social time. How are these people helping or hurting your quest to slim down?

You cannot cut them out of your life or convince them that they are not helping you (whether they are intentionally trying to sabotage you or not). Instead you have to find a work around.

Try not telling them about your diet so that they don't see you feeling pressure. Or consider taking one bite of what is offered and make up for it by taking an extra long walk. Whatever you do, do blame them for standing in your way. They probably don't even realize what they are doing.

Make a list of work arounds to have on hand in case you need them.

What will you do?

How will you stop a saboteur from changing your new habits?

What will be on your list?