Do you want to lose weight but are worried about what your family will say when you announce your intentions?
Perhaps you’re concerned that not all your family members will be on board with your new lifestyle, and you’ll feel you have no support.
Whatever your concern, this is the blog you need to read, if you want to involve your whole family in your weight loss journey.
Ask for their support
It might sound obvious, but if you want your family’s support, make sure you ask for it.
Sit down with your family and tell them what your weight loss goals are, and why they are important to you. Make sure you have a strong reason — a WHY — for losing weight. Not only will this help you stay committed, but if your family understands your reasons, they may be more willing to support you, especially if part of your why involves them.
For example, your WHY might be to be healthier for your kids as they grow up, or to be a better role model for them. Maybe it’s so you can improve your relationship with your partner. Whatever your reason, if one of the driving forces involves your family (which quite often it will), let them know, so they understand why their support is so important.
Ask for what you need
As well as asking for support on your weight loss journey, you need to be able to communicate openly with your family about the kind of support you need from them. This may include:
- Asking them not to bring tempting foods into the house
- Respecting the time you set aside to exercise
- Understanding that you need to prioritise yourself, instead of giving all of yourself to them all the time
- Reducing noise at night, so you can get to bed to ensure you’re refreshed and focused for your morning workout
- Understanding that resting and recovering will be an important part of your week from now on
- Being okay with you not drinking so much alcohol, or bingeing on junk food
- Celebrating your success, even if it’s invisible success, or something they don’t understand
- Calling you out on behaviours or thought patterns that won’t help you succeed
- Telling you when you engage in bad habits that are sabotaging your success.
There may be other kinds of support that you’d like from your family. Take the time to write these things down and let them know. Your family can’t support you in the ways you need them to, if they don’t know what you need.
Focus on family food
One of the most common things people do when they try to lose weight is to cook one meal for the family, and another one for themselves. Not only does this involve a whole lot more work and stress, but it doesn’t teach your kids how to eat healthy food. When you sit at the family dinner table and eat your bland, tasteless, low-calorie meal while the rest of your family eats tasty, delicious food, you’re sending a message that healthy food is boring. It also won’t help you stay on track and stick to your plan.
Rest assured that you can eat meals as a family that are nourishing, fat-burning, and delicious. Ways to get your family involved include asking your family what they’d like to eat and get them to help plan the weekly menu. In addition, enlisting their help with shopping and cooking the meals, will help them feel involved, and will provide a great opportunity for them to learn how to shop for and cook delicious, healthy food themselves.
Don’t forget that an important part of the weight loss journey is still being able to enjoy your favourite foods, so make sure that when you eat out, you go as a family. Take turns in choosing the restaurant or make eating dessert together an experience to look forward to by going out for quality ice-cream, rather than having supermarket-bought ice-cream every night. This will also show your kids that healthy eating isn’t about deprivation.
You might also like to check out our Recipe Book which is filled with over 100 family-friendly, easy-to-make, delicious meals.
Be active together
Of course, in order to lose weight you need to exercise regularly, however this isn’t something you should do in isolation. As well as your own training program (which should involved weight-resistance training and cardio training), you should also engage in low-intensity activity — or LIA as we call it. LIA can be anything that gets your body moving. It can also be a fun way to keep active with the family. Suggestions include swimming in the pool or at the beach, bike riding, hiking, beach or backyard cricket, bowling, or just walking together.
Being active with your family means you’ll be able to spend valuable, fun time with them, and teach them the importance of being active for life.
Celebrate as a family
Another aspect of involving your family in your weight loss journey is getting them to help celebrate with you. Celebrating your success is an important aspect of the process, and it’s even more meaningful when those who love you most can celebrate with you. But don’t wait until you hit the ‘big’ milestones to celebrate, as doing this will prevent you from seeing all the positive changes you’re making on your journey. Celebrate the small wins such as getting to bed earlier, feeling more energetic, improved blood pressure, less anxiety, more balanced hormones, or even getting rid of toxic people in your life.
Of course, your family will also be looking for physical signs that your body is changing. However, this can often be hard for your family members to notice, especially when they see you every day. This is where progress photos can be helpful. Photos don’t lie and they will show your family just how well you’re doing. When those closest to you see what you’ve achieved, they’ll give you praise and positive feedback, and will continue to support you. Knowing your family is proud of you will also give you a boost to keep going, when the times get a bit tough.
What your family gains from your weight loss journey
One thing that is often overlooked is the impact your weight loss journey will have on your family. Of course, you developing new habits will rub off on your kids, and they may develop some new, healthier habits of their own. They’re likely to eat less junk food, more fruits and vegetables and perhaps even increase their own activity levels. They will also learn some important lessons that they can carry through for the rest of their life. These may include:
But perhaps the biggest gains that your family will get is because they’ll be getting the best of you. For example:
- You’ll be a more present and active parent in your kids’ lives, instead of parenting from the sidelines
- You’ll be happier and less stressed, which will mean you won’t yell at your kids so much
- You’ll be healthier which will mean you won’t be a burden to your kids, and suffer from chronic disease as you age
- You’ll live longer because you’ll be healthier which means you’ll be around to see your grandkids
- You’ll have more to give to your family because you’ll be taking care of yourself and filling your cup first, instead of pouring from an empty one all the time.
- You’ll have a better relationship with your partner because you’ll feel more confident and worthy of their love.
Overall, your family will have a better, happier quality of life, because you’ll be at your best, and you’ll be able to give them your best.
A program that supports families
At Imani Tribe, believe that family support is incredibly important for your success. That’s why we ensure that our
Diet Antidote Transformation System (DATSTM Program) The Not-Diet-diet for people who are sick of diets and want more than a good body can be undertaken while you’re still raising a family. If you’d like to be part of our community, and have the right support behind you, get in touch today.
