Our Family Getting Healthier in 2011

I think I have posted about every diet there is or at least tried every diet.  I have tried the online diets, Atkins, soup and many more.  The three things I'm finding no matter what when one pursues an attempt to lose weight that are needed:  1.  mental state geared towards getting healthier versus dieting; 2. support from family and/or friends; and 3. ability to track food and exercise.   The key to the programs like Nutrisystem and Weight Watchers are food portions, calorie intake, exercise and tracking those calories and exercise.  You've seen all those commercials for those miracle fat loss supplements and in tiny print are the "results not typical."  No kidding .... but can they be a little more realistic and state that the few that actually did lose weight did so because they started eating better and exercising?  If any claim was that easy, everyone would be in shape.

I signed up to be a Nutrisystem Ambassador and probably won't make it because the competition is quite stiff.  I purchased my domain and lost my page rank of 3 unfortunately so that taints many in spite of my large number of followers.  Before that starting in January, I invoked a challenge to my family as I saw that many of them needed to get healthier so I started a private Facebook group and invited them to it.  There we share our struggles, our weekly weigh in and whatever else we feel like.  I have my mother, my sister, my daughter, her fiance, my cousin and my sister's husband to include myself all competing for the first prize of $100.  Money motivates them!  After being on the "whatever you choose plan," all but one has lost weight so I find this a big success.  My sister wrote me yesterday after visiting the doctor who was very happy she had lost 8 pounds since her last visit.  She thanked me for motivating her and even though I'm not looking for the kudos, it's so wonderful knowing my actions are making a difference.

Out of seven of us, we have lost 22 pounds since January 1st.  The power of motivation and family support are big!  Most everyone is just watching portion control, calorie intake and exercising.  Two are on Weight Watchers Online, one is on Nutrisystem and the rest are just eating healthier.  If you have a family like mine, why not try with them to see how far you can take it to get everyone feeling better and living longer!  I'll post an update with the mid results and who was using which program.