How to Help a Friend Onto the Path of Healthy Living

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How to Help a Friend Onto the Path of Healthy Living

September 29, 2009

With national obesity rates growing, chances are high you know someone who is looking to lose weight. Losing weight and living a healthy lifestyle can be quite challenging, so here are a few suggestions for how you can support your friend or loved one on her weight loss journey toward healthy living.

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by POPSUGAR Fitness 8

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by POPSUGAR Fitness 8

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8 Comments

biarose 3 years 32 weeks

Spectra- maybe, if you have the time, you could make her some healthy, but yummy, meals and then give her the recipes. Just to give her a taste of what eating healthily can be like and help her get started.

CozmoMeg86 3 years 33 weeks

I wish a friend would work with me. All mine really do is eat Taco Bell like they should eat veggies, and watch TV. They won't even use their Wii Fit because it made their mii fat, and that made them angry. I had to start all on my own. I took my cousin's old Elliptical machine out of her shed, purchased the Jillian Michaels workout DVD, and am joining Weight Watchers. Between having no self esteem, hating the way I'm treated by guys, and having not one but 2 Diabetic parents, I figured that I have to help myself even if nobody else will.Okay done venting/blabbering...

CozmoMeg86 3 years 33 weeks

Spectra 3 years 34 weeks

I'm trying to help my neighbor out with this. She's very obese and has diverticulitis. Her doctor said if she doesn't start eating better, she will need surgery to remove part of her colon. Mostly, she doesn't know what foods are truly healthy and which ones aren't, so I plan on taking her to the store with me to show her what to buy and what to look for. I also come by about 3 times a week and offer to walk with her (we both have big dogs, so we take them too). I don't want to nag her or anything, but I'd like to help her out so she doesn't need surgery.

Beaner 3 years 34 weeks

My hubby said he wanted to get in shape for ski season, so instead of running my usual run alone at lunchtime, I've been going with him after work. We run about half the time I usually go, but we're gradually building up and it's a nice way to spend time together. Plus if either one of us doesn't feel like going, we motivate the other to slip on the sneaks and go.

POPSUGAR Fitness 3 years 34 weeks

shiningeyes - that was very helpful of you. I love the idea of giving a friend an old MP3 player filled with workout music. And clipping inspirational weight loss stories is also a wonderful idea. You've definitely done a lot to support your friend on her healthy path. Way to go for losing 4 pounds!

shiningeyes 3 years 34 weeks

A friend of mine came to me crying not too long ago about how she's so tired of carrying extra weight and hating the way she looked. So first off, I got her walking a little more than 2.5 miles every day before work. I tried to meet her every morning to walk with her... but it was stressing me out a lot to do that because of the time constraints I already had in the morning. So after a week, I instead gave her an old mp3 player I had and had loaded them up with gospel music (her favorite) so she could have something inspirational to listen to (and distract her!) when doing her walking.I clipped out a bunch of "I did it!" weight loss stories from magazines and gave them to her for inspiration. I helped her to figure out how many calories she needs to aim for a day to lose weight. I gave her a few other things to help her along. But that was it... I refused to nag her or harrass her about sticking to her routine, because I'm not her trainer or her babysitter. However, she came up to me yesterday and was excited because she lost 4 lbs! She earned it!

shiningeyes 3 years 34 weeks

A friend of mine came to me crying not too long ago about how she's so tired of carrying extra weight and hating the way she looked. So first off, I got her walking a little more than 2.5 miles every day before work. I tried to meet her every morning to walk with her... but it was stressing me out a lot to do that because of the time constraints I already had in the morning. So after a week, I instead gave her an old mp3 player I had and had loaded them up with gospel music (her favorite) so she could have something inspirational to listen to (and distract her!) when doing her walking. I clipped out a bunch of "I did it!" weight loss stories from magazines and gave them to her for inspiration. I helped her to figure out how many calories she needs to aim for a day to lose weight. I gave her a few other things to help her along. But that was it... I refused to nag her or harrass her about sticking to her routine, because I'm not her trainer or her babysitter. However, she came up to me yesterday and was excited because she lost 4 lbs! She earned it!