Change is Possible: Becoming an Advocate of healthy living

13 Jun 2012

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Healthy Weight Loss
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becoming an advocate of healthy living

Oreos, Snackwell cookies, greasy potato chips, gravy, biscuits slathered with butter, and fried meats were a normal part of my everyday diet when I was morbidly obese. No one would have ever in a million years called me an ambassador or an advocate for healthy living. Nor would I have expected them to because my lifestyle was the absolute opposite of that phrase.

It just goes to show you how people can change. Although I am not a perfect example of healthy eating or a healthy lifestyle, people in my life often refer to me as an advocate for living a healthy lifestyle. I was giving a talk recently and the person who introduced me used the word “advocate” when describing me. She said I was an “advocate for healthy living.” That phrase stuck with me for several days afterward.

Me? An advocate?

The more I thought about it, the more I realized how important it is for all of us to be willing to believe that change is possible. I did change from living a life of unhealthy eating to a life of mainly healthy eating. I did change from sitting on the couch watching television as much as possible to developing healthy habits when it came to exercise and activity. And along the way I changed my relationship to food from an unhealthy one to a healthy one.

Because of those relatively simple changes I made, I have watched other people around me also make some healthy changes in terms of both exercise and food choices. A friend of mine told me that if I could get up and walk every morning with three small children, then she could too. And she did, and still does to this day.

Another friend began asking for healthy recipes and slowly changed her cooking style to healthier options such as grilling rather than frying, and stopped putting butter on her vegetables. Still another person I counseled on weight loss made positive changes in her eating habits and began to lose weight for the first time in her life.

You never know who is watching you and how your healthy lifestyle can influence other people. My hope is that as my children grow and mature, they too will be advocates in their circle of friends to help others see that healthy eating is satisfying, easy, and fulfilling.

advocates for healthy living

How do others see you? Do they see you as an advocate for healthy living?

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Diane

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