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Two Essential Ingredients to Weight Loss – Family and Friends (Part One)

Don Grier1 Comment

Two key ingredients to sustained and maintained weight loss are family and friends.  They are just as important to your weight loss journey as healthy food, careful tracking, water, and exercise.  Family and friends inspire you to be healthy, console you when you go off plan, and applaud you as you meet milestones.  It has been said that it takes a village to raise a child.  I say it takes your family and friends to take off the pounds and keep them off.

This has certainly been the case as I lost 170 plus pounds and kept it off over the last two + years.  Here are just a few of the ways that my family have helped with my weight loss.  Part two will focus on friends.

1.       My wife has provided great support and companionship.  She has listened patiently as I droned on about how many more Weight Watcher points a chicken thigh had compared to a chicken breast!  She has kept the cabinets and fridge stocked with healthy food and has hidden away any indulgences that she likes so I can’t find them.  She has asked each week how I did with my battle with the scale.  Most important, she has gone on numerous hikes with me.  Last year when I did my first Kennedy Walk (50 miles in one day), she walked with me for the first 10 miles at O dark thirty and finished the last 10 miles with me at 10:30 PM.  Here is a picture of us before walking the Bix 7.

Running the Bix 7
Running the Bix7

2.       My kids encouraged me and listened to all my Dad anecdotes about my latest struggles as I turned away from my Peanut M&M addiction.  They showed their support by giving me Likes on my countless Facebook posts (especially my son-in-law). They also did not gripe when our family outings changed from pizza to Brussel sprouts.  Lastly, they turned me on to the latest self-help gurus like Tim Ferris that inspired me (thanks Kyle). 

3.       Family Pets – Boots the dog joined the weight loss journey with me.  I remember that initial walk when he and I were at peak weight as we trudged up a hill on what I called our last chance workout! We both made it thankfully for Colette since she did not have to carry us up the hill (although Boots stopped for 10 minutes mid-way through)!  As we lost weight together on the trails of Turkey Creek, he shared my victories and my steak.  You can read more about Boots and me in this blog.  The two cats have been helpful because they wake me up at 4:30 AM to let them out, thus making sure I get to the morning work out on time!

A little help from friends: Striding Subbu and Boots the Dog

4.       Extended Family – My siblings and my in-laws have been companions and inspired me on my weight loss journey.  My brother also took on the weight loss challenge and has lost over a 100 lbs.  We really should have gone on the biggest loser and won the cash (but our health is way more important).  My other brother and sister have also encouraged me with Facebook likes and encouragement.  As for my wife’s family, they have been key to establishing an exercise regimen.  One of my sisters in law established a monthly challenge group on Facebook.  Together our team walked across Texas and challenged ourselves in fitness.  One of my nieces made a group called Spreading Positivity which was a key to keeping me up when I was down!

Feed your soul, heal your body

Aside Don Grier2 Comments

There is a definite connection between body and soul.  Be happy, feel better.  Share kindness, win friends, and feel good.  On the other hand, when you are stressed or miss your work out, it is not always easy to turn the other cheek.  Common sense confirms recent studies that caring for others improves both the wellbeing of those you helped and your own!

I have struggled to learn this lesson over my 50+ years.  I am naturally an intense person and a bit of a curmudgeon. A person that is sometimes not kind to others and in particular myself.  Driven to achieve, I sometimes drive other people out and beat myself up.  This often led to regret, guilt and more often then not an eating binge.  A happy person is a healthy person and visa versa.

That is why when I started on my weight loss journey two years ago, it was just as important to cleanse my soul as my body.  I took several measures to help me improve my disposition and correspondingly my health.  This is what I did.

  1. Write in my Kindness Journal – I journal six minutes a day in a Kindness Journal.  It sets my goals for the day on how to be a better person and helps me vision the person I want to become.  It also provides me a place to recognize those items the day before for which I was most pleased (being kind to myself) and reflect on those that were kind to me.   Lastly, I set my intention on one kind or beneficial act that I will do to make the world better for others.  I use this particular journal but you can use another Kindness Journal
  2. Record happy thoughts in HappyFeed – Besides writing in my Kindness Journal, I record three things each day that I am happy about.  I use the iOS application HappyFeed.  You do not always have to write something earth shattering.  Sometimes I write something like “I got 8 hours of sleep last night!”.  The key is to dwell on what makes you happy whether than what makes you stressed.
  3. Pray, Meditate and Give Thanks – When you are thankful, there is no room for worry.  You feel better about yourself and also those around you.  Also the Power of Thanksgiving can break through even the darkest hour.  I spoke to this in the following blog.  The Power of Thanksgiving
  4. Help Others – Helping others has benefits for those you help and others.  First, when you help others, you focus on them and not the issues that you are facing.  Also, you are so preoccupied with the task at hand whether it is building a house for Habitat for Humanity or walking to raise funds to combat cancer, that you often do not have time to overeat.
  5. Smile – The simple act of smiling lightens your mood and that of others.  Better yet laugh, it is the best medicine as they say.