I believe that your family and friends (true friends) should be supportive of you no matter what you have chosen to accomplish. Who needs negitivity around? Should they change their way of life? Definately Not. Unless you absolutely do not have the will power to resist temptation, and their failure to assist you will derail you. But that is putting the responsibility of your success on them, and that is not where it belongs.

My son is 15, 6 foot tall and weighs 160 lbs. He obviously has no weight problem. My boyfriend is also at a healthy weight. My best friend is dieting (low fat) and finds herself amazed that I lost 20 lbs in two weeks and it took her 12 weeks and numerous trips to the gym. We have agreed that her way works for her and my way works for me.

I can not say enough that my family and friends have been extremely supportive of me and understand that I want to loose weight because I want to feel better about me and my body image. Their constant love, support and listening to me has been invaluable to my short success. I am doing this for me absolutely 100%, but I know that they are proud of me and that helps me keep my goals in focus.

Good Luck to you!

Wow...I just realized what a great family I have. They have been so supportive....always telling me how great I am doing, offering to buy "special" food for me (not really that special -- just Splenda, macadamias, cream, blueberries, etc.) so I have things to eat/snack on when I visit. They ask me if I can eat this or that before we go out or before someone starts cooking. They even appologize if they eat somethig high-carb in front of me. If they see something new at the store that is low-carb they tell me about it.

I am always trying to tell them if fine to eat in front of me (it truly doesn't bother me) and that as long as there's a meat and a vegetable at the meal I am in no danger of starving. they never make me feel bad about not eating soemthing.

I should note that no one in my family has EVER made me feel bad about being overweigt.

I wish I could share them with you all!

I'm fortunate that DH is doing this with me, so we are able to support each other. My mom is also doing it, so when she and Dad come down to visit, I don't have to do too much special: Dad is very supportive, although he has some health issues that would make this inadvisable.

What do I expect from family and friends?

That no one who eat a meal that I've prepared bitch about what's on the table (or NOT on the table). That includes my three kids. They are older (21 and 18) so I've told them that if they want high-carbs for dinner (things like potatoes and rice) they can fix it themselves. I DO keep the foods they like in the house for the most part, including chocolate ice cream and bread and milk, and find it surprisingly easy to NOT eat them, provided I don't have to look at them. A few times I've asked that they not eat something in front of me, and they've complied. I'd expect anyone living with me to learn enough about this so they CAN be supportive -- learn which foods are low carb and which are high carb, cook so I CAN get a decent meal when it's their turn to cook (sort of like living with a vegetarian: you don't have to avoid cooking meat, but you DO make sure there are foods on the table that they can eat.)

I don't expect deliberate sabatoge from anyone: if I'm eating at someone else's house, it's nice if they have stuff I can easily eat -- and if they don't, missing a meal won't kill me. The support I want is to NOT have anyone push me in any way to eat food that I turn down, and, with the exception of a waitress who wanted to give me a free dessert today, I haven't had people doing that.

And I don't want anyone harranging me about this being unhealthy; so far, so good -- and if anyone starts, I can now tell them how much weight I've lost, and point out that even if they're right, it has to be less unhealthy than carrying around an extra 150 pounds!

Oh -- and when the weight loss becomes obvious, a few nice comments about how I look wouldn't be out of line!

Marie H

Great Question! While my family has always been great - when I did low calorie and low fat they would simply eat other stuff - which oddly enough - in the beginning was fine - it was after a few months that I resented it (ok, I know that means I had the problem not them since they are all thinner than I!) but now it is just DH of 32 years and we both love this WOE and I have to admit that kind of support - doing it together is a huge plus! We don't do it exactly the same - our dinners are the only meals we share - it's working and a lot more fun with each other's support!

I love reading everyone's comments.

PecanPie