Healthy Living and Social Life

Your social life can make or break your new lifestyle.  It depends on the individuals in your life and how badly you desire to change.  When it came to exercise, my social life helped me to create a routine that was so much fun!  When it came to eating properly, however, I was almost always the one who set an example.  For the first few years it was difficult for me; at times it was even daunting.  The difficult part was that because people felt that the eating style that I chose was "too hard to follow" very few wanted to emulate.

I remember how difficult my life was when I was on the Jenny Craig diet.  (Due to my past experience, I don't recommend the Jenny Craig diet.)  All the places I used to love were suddenly a death trap for my diet.  People kind of felt bummed for me when we hung out.  Of course they still ate their pastries and high calorie foods that I couldn't eat.  This was the first time my eating style was so different from everyone around me that it created a struggle.  After four months of the Jenny Craig diet I was sick so often (from the Jenny Craig food) that I had to quit... much to my relief.  As much as I regret ever going on the Jenny Craig diet it did teach me a valuable lesson; it showed me how my environment reacts to change when it comes to food.  Later in my life when I started making a habit of eating the real healthy food as opposed to the frozen dinners that made me ill, people became even less tolerant of my lifestyle.

It got to the point where people would ask me questions about my eating style, and before I would answer I would ask them if they were sure they wanted to hear my answer.  I would often go further and let them know that people often didn't realize what they were asking me.  I would then warn them that my answer may be something that they really didn't want to hear.  I still do this to this day.