I was recently talking to a friend about a tense situation she was in the middle of with one of her family members. I remembered back to when my family situation got so bad that I ended up cutting ties and moving across the world.
The thing is people tend to not like change – especially when they are benefiting from things staying the same. In my friend’s case, her family member benefitted from being in control of her. It’s when my friend started standing up for herself and not obeying the whims of the family member that things started getting a little sticky.
The same sort of thing happened in my case when I started trying to stand up for myself and become my own woman. And the same thing can happen to you when you’re trying to lose weight.
Whether you’re the ‘fat friend’ to skinnier people or friends/family with people around your size, you could be giving friends or family benefits you don’t realize you’re giving them.
In the case of the former, having the ‘fat friend’ around makes the others look better. In the latter, people may feel more comfortable around you because they feel like they can eat whatever they want.
When you start changing and getting fit, you may be met with smiles on the outside but also a bit of negative energy in addition.
Whether or not they realize they are doing it – often they won’t realize it and will deny such behavior – you need to take stock of what is really important. If getting fit is important to you, you might need to make some tough decisions.
Have you had to make tough decisions in regards to influences on your fitness journey?