As you may or may not know, I have been on a health and well-being journey for the last few years. By early 2020 I'd lost 15kg, had been practising yoga regularly, walking more, and I was feeling pretty pleased with myself. Following a series of difficult events, I started to gain some of the weight back. There will be many of you who know exactly what I'm talking about and like me, have been in this place many, many times. A cycle of weight loss, feeling good, slipping up, shame, eating more, gaining more and on it goes. This of course was nothing new for me, after all, my life's journey to this point had been this exact pattern, repeatedly. However what I did differently this time has been a game-changer. A seemingly simple solution that has worked beautifully, and continues to. From joining a number of health and well-being Facebook groups I have met a whole range of wonderful people. Being in these communities is something I find incredibly helpful. Talking to like-minded individuals is comforting. It's also very informative. In mid 2019 I met a women in a group and we just clicked. The group was based in the US and I find it's always really nice to meet New Zealanders in these forums. When it comes to weight loss it's particularly useful because we have the same products in our supermarkets. Often in a US or UK based group I have no idea what they referring to when a product is under discussion. We (Jill and I) struck up a conversation on a comment thread and established that we were both Kiwis. What we also discovered was that we both wanted to lose weight without dieting, because we'd done that too many times in the past. The important thing for us both was to eat whole foods, so nuts, seeds, fresh fruit and vegetables and fish and chicken. We'd each previously discovered that cutting out preservatives, refined sugar and gluten were beneficial for us too. After several private messages we decided to be weight loss buddies. We agreed we would chat to each other regularly through Facebook messenger to share ideas, struggles and our progress. With my business life I'd had a buddy for around four years by this time so I knew the benefits. This is something I just found worked for me and I think it was about being one-on-one, rather than in a large group. I liked the fact that we could each share our experiences, and get recommendations, or just an ear. Being able to articulate how I was feeling or what was going on for me, seemed to be what worked. Now, 18 months later, Jill and I still message each other several times a week to check in. This year we've both been finding weight loss more challenging than last year, but we've been able to support each other through this. Having that one person I can talk to has been enormously helpful. The other lovely bonus of this type of buddy system is that we've gotten to know each other quite well. Not only have we shared our health and well-being struggles and successes, but we've talked about a myriad of topics along the way. We've shared things about our families, travels, work and business lives and so much more. If you're finding it hard to stay on track with your health journey, you might just find it useful to have a buddy too. You might have a neighbour, family member or like Jill and I, it could be someone in a forum you're in. How have you found having a weight loss buddy (if you have one)? Tell us in the comments, I'd love to know. Until next time,
