Dieting Success While Having a Social Life

One of the most common thing competitors find difficult is the social aspect of life while dieting. As a competitor you can be dieting anytime of the year and all year if you diet for bulk off season as well. Many friends, family members and co workers find it difficult to understand such restrictions and clean eating guidelines.

I often hear how friends question the competitor dieting, they think its nuts and a lot of the time it is a friend who has weight issues who have a hard time with proper eating habits in general so they cannot fathom what they see in a contest diet. They try to convince you that you do not need to go so hard and that a little of this or that won’t hurt. Now in general that is true but for contest diets you really do have to follow what works to get your results which in many cases are strict dieting. They tell you to go ahead and have that beer or glass of wine because you only live once. This can make things hard and there is not much you can do to convince them otherwise but you have to remain true to your goals and stick with the confidence in your plan.

These are simple obstacles that we all have to deal with, some more than others. Those who support your efforts are extra special and sometimes will go along with you on a mild eating plan and work on their goals. Now that is positive.

There have been extreme cases where friendships have had to be dropped or competitors have had to keep their training and eating to themselves in order to avoid the drama. Sad but this is also reality for some of us.

Sometimes if you feel that those around you will not be supportive it is easier to network with others of like mind. They are going through the same ordeal and the community becomes supportive of each other. These individuals can understand things that others may not get.

Even as a mild dieter or someone not competing, these factors can still be present. Some ethnicities are very against any kind of diet, inactive parents won’t take to well to seeing fat loss in their children even if the child is not 25 or 40 years old! Comments like, "you’re getting to skinny" or "you look sick" will start to pop out!

The simple thing to focus on here is that unfortunately many of these ideas are due to ignorance which is an innocent ignorance yet still ignorance. Beliefs you may have are not always shared with others even if your beliefs are the more viable ones.

Many times you end up with these saboteurs asking you to help them, asking you what you have done to get where you are and they forget how they busted your chops when you used to pass on the beer or order chicken salads at restaurants instead of rich carbs.

If you do find friends or family who at some point take a change of heart, do all you can to help them at their level of comfort and in the end you are the better for it!!!

By Linda Cusmano