How to Use Your Entire Support System to Reach Your Goals

In this article:

• A stronger support system makes you more likely to reach health and weight loss goals. Your system can include family members, friends, neighbors, colleagues, and healthcare providers. Online and in-person support groups can also be part of your network.
• Your support system can provide participatory support, logistical support, financial support, and more.
• It’s important to find out from others what they’re willing to do to support you. It also helps to let them know how they can be most helpful.
• Asking for help can be hard sometimes. It can be easier when you offer help in return.
• Lark offers support 24/7 to help you reach weight and health goals with or without GLP-1 medications.
  

When your goals are to manage weight or make healthy changes, your support system matters. A strong support system can boost motivation and accountability, make healthy choices easier for you, and help you overcome obstacles and setbacks. People in your support system can help in many different ways depending on your needs and their willingness and abilities. Here are some ways they can help and how you can ask.

Participatory Support

Participatory support is when someone joins with you in your healthy behaviors. Participatory support increases accountability, makes it easier for healthy actions to fit into your life, and reduces barriers to making healthy choices.

Walking or working out with you. You may find exercise partners at the gym or walking buddies in your neighborhood or at a local park. A work colleague, your significant other, or a roommate may walk with you at lunch or do workout videos with you in the mornings or evenings. Group fitness classes also offer a chance to work out with others.

Cooking healthy meals with you. A roommate, significant other, or your children may prepare and eat healthy food with you. Try making dinner with housemates, or if you have school-aged

children or a spouse or roommate who works, try packing healthy lunches together in the evenings.

Making healthy restaurant choices with you. Family members and friends can choose to go with you to restaurants that have healthier menu options, and they can order healthy foods when you’re all together.

Keeping home and work environments that support cleaner eating. Family members can agree to keep chips and other high-calorie, low-nutrient snack foods out of the home. Work colleagues can eat healthy lunches with you and keep doughnuts out of the office.

Logistical Support

Logistical support gives you practical help that may enable you to engage in healthy behaviors. Here are some examples.

Help with childcare. Friends, neighbors, or family members can watch your children while you exercise. Something that sounds small, like another parent watching your child for 20 minutes at the park, can allow you to get in a brisk walk or another workout. Cooking a meal, chopping vegetables for the next few days, and cleaning the home so you can get to bed earlier are other things that may be easier to accomplish while someone else is taking care of your children.

Flexibility. Squeezing in a workout and having time for active breaks, as well as water and bathroom breaks, can be easier when you have flexibility with your time. Employers in particular can support you by giving you more control over your schedule so you can take care of big and little tasks on your health journey.

Help with meal preparation. Eating well can be easier when someone helps you prepare healthy food. It can be fun to prepare food with people in your household. Another option is to set up a meal sharing arrangement in which you cook dinner for your family and another family once or twice weekly, and they do the same for you in return. As you make the arrangements, discuss and agree on details like nutritional requirements and food preferences.

Help with transportation. People can give you a ride to the gym, the supermarket, or doctor’s appointments if you have limited access to a car or convenient transportation. It can enable you to go to these places and it can even save you money if, for example, it allows you to shop at more affordable grocery stores compared to convenience stores. Carpooling can also save on gas money, and it can potentially let you strengthen bonds with the other person or people who are in your carpool.

Financial Support

Financial support can be critical if money is tight.

Money or other support from relatives. A few extra dollars may be enough to let you purchase more vegetables or lean proteins, join a gym, or pay for an hour a week of babysitting

to let you take a walk. Parents and grown children who can afford it may be willing to give you money once they understand how tight money is for you and how you plan to use the money.

Subscriptions and memberships from relatives and friends. Friends and family who don’t want to give you cash may feel more comfortable gifting you with a gym membership or health-related subscriptions such as to a healthy cooking app or an online workout video channel or database.

Employee wellness programs. Find out what your employer offers that can help reduce your costs of healthy living. Common benefits from employers include access to apps like Lark, apps that offer workouts on demand, and apps that help with stress and sleep.

Public assistance. Government programs vary by state and municipality. Assistance for

low-income households may include money for food and access to community gardens. It can also be helpful to take advantage of programs that may directly pay for specific foods that you want, but that help your food dollars go further. For example, many students qualify for breakfast, lunch, and supper at school. You can also look for local food banks, and anyone can use sites like MyPlate and the USDA’s Thrifty Food Plan for tips on saving money while eating healthy.

Check here for more info on eating healthy on a budget!

Emotional and Moral Support

Having a good friend (or several) can go a long way when it comes to sticking to healthy intentions. It’s good to tell them clearly what you need from them, such as encouragement, ideas, queries about how you are doing, or quiet listening. Here are some roles your support system can play when it comes to emotional and moral support.

Listening to you. Having a dependable listening ear can make challenges and setbacks feel more manageable. Family members, friends, and interested neighbors or coworkers can listen. If you speak to them regularly anyway, you can use that time to vent and share. Otherwise, you may want to set up a regular time to talk. It can be weekly, daily, or as needed. You might also want to make sure you know whom you can phone on the spur of the moment if you’re feeling a sudden need to vent.

Encouraging you. When you’re feeling discouraged, your support person can encourage you. If you’re feeling down, they can remind you of positive things like the hard work you’ve put in, victories that you’ve had, and other times that you’ve gotten over hurdles. Additional encouragement is also welcome when you are doing well. It can help keep up the momentum when you have someone to reinforce how much effort you put in and how much you deserve the good things that are happening to you.

Celebrating milestones. Everyone likes to be recognized. Let your supporters recognize when you win! Milestones can be big, like losing 50 lb, but they can be smaller, like ordering a healthy meal at a restaurant. It builds momentum when we feel victorious.

Informational and Inspirational Support

Sharing experiences. Learn from others who are going through similar experiences as you or who have been through similar experiences. Find out how they cope or how they coped when faced with challenges, as well as what they wish they’d done better.

Feeling camaraderie. Talking to others who are on a health or weight loss journey like you lets you know that you’re not alone. Otherwise, your journey can feel isolating. People who understand what you’re going through can show empathy and make it easier for you to identify and accept feelings you may be having like frustration, disappointment, or confusion. Support groups in the community or that you find through your healthcare provider can be good sources of camaraderie. You can use online groups like Lark’s Facebook groups to vent and share.

Information sharing. Other people on weight loss or health journeys can share what worked for them and give specific tips like how to make over recipes so they’re healthier, which layers of clothing they use when they walk outdoors in cold weather, or how they got themselves to drink more water. Healthcare providers and trusted online sites from the government, universities, and credible institutions can provide information such as nutritional goals, recipes and menus, workout tips, and where to go for more help.

How Lark Can Help

Finding love and support from yourself and others can help you reach your weight and health goals. Lark can help you make positive choices on a daily basis. Your Lark coach is available 24/7 for encouragement, nutrition and physical activity coaching, and habit tracking. Lark can help you make healthy choices and establish habits that fit into your lifestyle so you can lose weight and keep it off with or without GLP-1 medications.

Click here to see if you may be eligible to join Lark today!