Choosing a Weight-Loss Buddy: A Key to Successful Weight Loss

Tips for Getting Started

Once you've decided how and when you'll meet to support one another, it is time to get started! Pick a question of the day to discuss from the following list:

• Do we feel safe enough with each other to really open up? Share your apprehensions about discussing personal matters and make each other feel comfortable enough to talk about real issues.
• How much do we want to fix our weight problems? Confirm your desire to make lifestyle changes and discuss the aspects you find most challenging.
• How can we best help each other? Ask each other for what you really need.
• What are our biggest secrets about our eating and exercise habits? Sharing the things you are most ashamed of will rid you of a big burden.
• What's the hardest part of eating healthfully and exercising? Help each other through the rough spots.
• Do we have confidence in our ability to make better dietary choices? Through mutual support, you can greatly boost your confidence.
• How can we stay motivated? Together you can create strategies to help you stick to your diets.

Keeping up the Momentum

These are conversation openers for you. It is around issues such as these that women can really bond, support, and inspire one another. As you become a stronger weight-loss team, you will come up with other important questions to add to this list. You'll find a deep well of knowledge and strategies to dip into when you pool your resources with another woman in this way.

It can't be stressed enough how important it is to pick a weight-loss partner who won't let you down. Many times women try to lose weight together, and too often one will do well through making a serious effort, while the other will not. That is hard on the weight-loss effort and on the friendship. This is a serious endeavor and it won't help if the woman with whom you team up takes your goals lightly and is not brave enough to explore the issues at hand.

Pick someone you truly like, someone with whom you are comfortable, someone you think will have the utmost respect for your innermost thoughts and feelings. Choose a woman who you consider honest and straightforward, someone who will take this journey to permanent weight loss as seriously as you do. Establish this relationship with a partner who won't judge you, someone who will have sensitivity to what you feel, what you think, and who you are.