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“Wow! You’ve lost a lot of weight. I think you might be getting too skinny!”
“Huh. Sure, I suppose YOU are going to just eat a salad while we all eat real food!”
How do those comments make you feel about yourself, about your progress, about your self-worth? Your friends and family might actually think they are making helpful statements but in reality, they are sabotaging you. And if you don’t challenge them, you have chosen to let them continue their subtle sabotage.
Yes. By staying silent, you are telling them they are right.
Now, I don’t want you to throw your salad in their face and scream “Shut up!” (Although, if you are like me, you’ve thought about it.) Try for a more assertive yet firm response. For the first statement:
“Thanks for noticing my hard work. Weight loss has been a lifelong challenge, and my goal is to become as healthy as I can be.”
For the second statement:
“You are right, I do enjoy salads, but when I pay attention, I can–and do–eat the same food choices that you eat. I just will probably eat less than you because I eat only the number of calories that my body burns each day.”
Be assertive. You know your own body. Most people think they are helping when they “give you good advice” but you know what you need to to.
Photo via Pixabay by jamesoladujoy (Two men talking) and geralt (Woman) All images and videos on Pixabay are released under the Creative Commons CC0. Thus, they may be used freely for almost any purpose – even commercially and in printed format. Attribution is appreciated, but not required.
All images from LoseIt are mine, and cannot be used without permission.
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Music composed and performed by Jason Shaw, courtesy of Audionautix.com
Voiceover courtesy of Matt Young. Matt is a professional voiceover artist. If you have any need of voice-over work, for your podcast, radio spot, or whatever, you can reach Matt by a variety of methods. He is on LinkedIn. On Twitter. And Google+. Follow his Facebook page to learn how to better use social media. Matt was also my guest on MYST 54. Give his story a listen.
