Trying to Lose Weight? Surround Yourself with Positive Influences

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Believing in yourself is crucial to weight-loss success. But your peer group can make a big difference, too. Once you've committed to losing that baby weight, it's time to turn your attention to the people around you. Make sure you're hanging around with friends and family members who will encourage you and celebrate your successes.

Having a girlfriend or two willing to exercise with you, swap meal ideas, and offer kind words of encouragement when you're feeling down will undoubtedly boost your chances of long-term success. So ask a friend if she'd like to go through this experience together. Even if she lives out of state, you can keep in touch via email.

Build a Network of Supporters

The next step is to enlist the help of your friends, family, and coworkers, but express your needs very clearly or they may not realize how to be helpful. Be honest and tell them that you're committed to losing weight and would like them to do any or all of the following:

• Choose healthy venues when you go out together for lunch or dinner.
• Join you in your workouts now and then.
• Recommend healthy meals that they enjoy.
• Ask you daily how things are going. This is big. If you're about to cave in and buy a bag of chips from the vending machine, having a co-worker walk by and ask, "How's your program going?" may very well persuade you to choose a healthy snack.
• Congratulate you for every pound lost or hour exercised. Hearing someone say, "You've been working hard and I can see the difference. Way to go!" will give you the boost you need to keep going.