|
Ask The Coach — What To Do With Diet Saboteurs?
We’re experiencing
life like never before. Our challenges and opportunities are much different than our parents or even those from a decade ago.
Ask The Coach is your opportunity to ask whatever’s on your mind and hear back from Coach Lisa-Michelle, who
shares her expertise — a unique combination of career and life coaching, human resources, marketing, business management,
personal branding, and so much more.
A certified coach and founder and president of Ace The Race,
LLC, Lisa-Michelle is a member of the International Coach Federation
and International Association of Business Communicators. She served on the Executive Board of the International Coach Federation’s
Long Island Chapter and volunteers as a career and life coach.
Dear Coach,
I’ve been trying to diet since after
New Year’s and haven’t lost a pound. It’s important for me to lose weight for health reasons and to look
better. I’m finding it difficult to get the support I need from my husband. He not only continues to buy the fattening
and unhealthy foods I love, but he also puts them in front of me. When I say I don’t want any, he tells me a little
won’t hurt and gets insulted. How do I explain my needs without hurting him?
—Dieter In Need Of Support, 41
Dear Dieter,
There’s a difference between not giving someone support and sabotaging.
It sounds to me that your efforts to eat healthier and lose weight are being sabotaged, even if unintentionally. Diet saboteurs
come in all shapes and sizes — spouses, friends, family.
Every relationship has its own dynamics.
Your husband may think he’s showing you his love by offering you the food you love, and it may be very difficult for
him to change this habit. There may be other reasons, but it's important for you to move forward.
Take the time to
explain your needs to him before it happens again. Having a calm, open conversation could do wonders. Tell him why it’s
important to you and how you need him to help. Let him know what foods you like that are healthier, which aren’t problematic
for you.
Show him you’re serious. Make sure you have healthy alternatives available. If every time he
offers you a favorite fattening treat, you indulge — even under protest — then you’re sending him a mixed
message. As difficult as it is, stick to your healthy eating habits by reaching for a health-conscience option as he’s
giving you the food you should stay away from. In time, he’ll understand.
Let him know you
appreciate him . . . for who he is and not what he gives you.
Good luck, Ask The Coach originally appeared in Blog @
The 40 Factor.
|
 |
|
