This is the way to get the best out of friendship when counting pedometer steps or walking for weight loss:
Choose your diet buddies carefully. Someone who has been successfully dieting or exercising in a similar lifestyle may be of most help to you;
Look for long term participation events such as a pedometer steps program where your involvement lasts despite change in participants;
Make eating or dining engagements fit your requirements such as meeting for coffee not dinner, include walking as part of your night out;
If necessary avoid those friends who can’t support you at this time, restricting yourself to phone or email;
Always stay focused on the positive results you are achieving and imagine the benefits of achieving your goal.
Acknowledge that the right attitude is a major endorphin booster! The impact of friendship on women has been proven both ways-supporting and effective if undertaken together for weight loss; but also supporting excessive eating and weight gain, if not.
A study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine said friends could influence as much as a 57% weight gain. At times we all have blows to our commitment and it is the support of our personal world view which is of most help. However those who can offer nurturing at these times are of true benefit.
Accept the offers of those who will join you on your chosen walk, pedometer steps target, gym class, or similar, and let this gentle soothing be your way out into renewed balance and joy in your life, without abandoning an important lifestyle choice of health and well being.
A weight loss or exercise program, and it is repeatedly shown that both are necessary for long term successful weight loss, requires the ability to flow through the ups and downs of life.
