10 reasons why you need a support team to lose weight.

Achieve your goals, receive encouragement, share ideas, and always have a friend

A support team is essential on your journey to permanent weight loss. They can help you achieve your goals, offer support and encouragement, and help you push through challenges.

1. Achieve more with accountability

Share your personal goals and deadlines with your support team and have them hold you accountable. Sharing your goals creates a certain amount of pressure to:

• Follow through with your plan
• Achieve your goals
• Accomplish what others are expecting from you (and what you’re expecting from yourself)
• Not let others (and yourself) down

Just like your boss holds you accountable for work goals and deadlines, it can be helpful to have someone hold you accountable for personal goals and deadlines.

Set BEST goals and share them with your support team. Simply telling another person your goals can create enough pressure to help you achieve them. 11 other ways to hold yourself accountable for your goals.

2. Stop procrastinating

Accountability can create a sense of urgency to achieve your goals; you’ll be less likely to procrastinate and make excuses when you know somebody will be following up with you.

• Solutions for the most common exercise excuses
• Humorous quotes about excuses

“Accountability breeds response-ability.” ~Stephen R. Covey

It’s easy to make excuses and procrastinate if nobody is holding you accountable for your actions. Find an accountability partner who won’t accept excuses.

In Step 2 of my 5-step plan for permanent weight loss, I suggest setting one-week goals. This will also help create a sense of urgency; one week is enough time to achieve a small goal, but not long enough for much procrastination.

3. Receive encouragement

With a support team, you’ll have people around you to share in your excitement and achievement of your goals. You’ll have your own personal cheering section and hear things like:

• “Congratulations!”
• “Good job!”
• “Way to go!”
• “You can do this!”
• “I’m so proud of you!”

If you’re not getting positive support from your friends and family, look elsewhere for weight loss support.

• Where to find weight loss support
• Why people might sabotage your weight loss efforts

4. Focus on the positives

A support team can help you focus on the positive changes you have made so far on your journey.

In general, we’re usually too hard on ourselves. We tend to focus on the negatives and the things we haven’t done instead of the positives and things we have done. Your support team can help remind you of those things you have done.

5. Stay motivated

A support team can provide you positive encouragement and help you continue moving forward, especially when you’re feeling down or don’t feel like your hard work is paying off.

Motivation is not constant. It’s hard to stay positive and motivated, especially if you’re not seeing the results you’re looking for. Weight loss takes hard work and results come slowly (at least the results that last).

• 10 ways to stay motivated when you’re not losing weight
• 5 things to know about motivation

6. Talk about and share ideas and information

Share:

• Your favourite exercise or recipe book
• An app you’re using to track food or exercise
• The name of a good personal trainer or therapist
• A new exercise you learned
• Creative ways to fit in exercise
• Tips on how to eat healthier
• New healthy recipes

7. Brainstorm solutions to your challenges

Share your current challenges and discuss solutions to overcome them.

• Brainstorm ways to handle certain situations
• Learn what has (or hasn’t) worked for others in similar situations
• Discuss ways to overcome your challenges
• Listen to ideas you haven’t thought of

Everyone has different experiences, perspectives and ideas that might help you overcome your obstacles and challenges. They may share ideas you haven’t thought of.

8. Ask for advice

People generally don’t like unsolicited advice or being told what to do. However, if you want advice or feedback, you have a group of people to ask/solicit.

Listen to the advice you receive. Be open to it (after all, you asked for it), and apply any advice you think might work.

9. Receive an objective perspective

If you’re working with a professional (a wellness coach or therapist), they can:

• Provide an unbiased, outside perspective on your situation
• Help you come up with solutions to your challenges
• Listen without judgement
• Give you ‘homework’ or something to think about between sessions

10. You always have a friend

With a support team, you will never be alone on your journey to permanent weight loss; you will always have someone you can talk to. Even if you participate in an online forum and have never met your support team, you can still ‘talk’ to someone, share things, and feel heard.

If anyone on your support team has been through or is currently on their own journey to permanent weight loss, you have the added bonus of talking with someone who can understand what you’re going through.

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