So you’re determined to keep your New Year’s resolution and lose weight in 2004. Before you start counting carbs, lining up bottles of water or documenting every morsel, make sure you haven’t neglected the basics.
We’re talking moral support.
“The literature shows that the longer someone has support, the better the outcome,” says Richard Cohen, director of the HMR Weight Management Program of Greene Memorial Hospital in Xenia, Ohio.
That all-important support can come from a variety of sources: group meetings, informal get-togethers, spouses, friends, counselors or sponsors. A hospital-based program such as Greene Memorial’s often combines all of those.
“You’re going through changes and trying to do things differently, and it’s important that other people acknowledge your work,” Cohen says.
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Support from others, he says, can help us cope with the inevitable urge to eat, whether it’s triggered by emotions, habits or time of day.
“The idea is to get as much support as you can from as many places as you can,” says Cohen, a registered dietitian who lost 90 pounds and says he couldn’t have done it without his wife’s support. “It’s important to know you’re not in it alone.”
Dietitian Michelle Kitze says most people never make it past three weeks of their resolution to lose weight, but enlisting support can change that.
“It makes a difference if you have an ally or group of people who have everything to gain by your success and who are objective and experienced enough to give you effective support,” she says.
Kitze says it may only take one other person–a friend or co-worker–who wants to accomplish the same goals you do.
“You’ll definitely have rough times,” she says. “Having moral support will help you with lapses and get you back on track.”
Mike Griest agrees. In the past year and a half, the 27-year-old from Springfield, Ohio, has lost 211 pounds.
“I had tried to cut back on my food and tried to exercise, but it had never worked,” Griest says.
He signed up online for Weight Watchers and liked the program but found he still wasn’t holding himself accountable. So he joined an at-work Weight Watchers class at Wittenberg University.
“The weekly weigh-in and celebration of weight loss with the group was a great motivator,” Griest says. “It was great when other people did well because you could see weight loss was possible, and it was great when I did well because the group was cheering for me and celebrating my accomplishments.”
Griest, who has recently started leading classes for the organization, says group members also share everything from exercise tips to food finds.
“Instead of going to the grocery store on your own, you have 30 other people out there looking for good recipes and good food.”
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale ([email protected]) and Kris Karnopp ([email protected]).