Eating Well May Require Moral Support

"Discover Oprah's top-rated diet that celebrities use to get thin. I'm no celebrity, but it worked for me."

I found this line on an advertisement on Facebook. Celebrities are just people like us. They work hard to get the bodies they have. They don't just sit around and any eating or exercise regime they follow is not more magical than yours.

But there is one other tip you can learn from celebrities. If you want to become a certain way, you need to surround yourself with people who live in that way. They are all (seemingly) slim, trim and gorgeous. They are surrounded by people who are slim, trim and gorgeous... so if one day they walked out amongst their other slim, trim, gorgeous friends with frizzy hair, out-of-date clothing and a few extra kilos, well they would probably stand out a whole lot more than if they did the same thing amongst us.

If you want to eat healthily and exercise regularly, surrounding yourself with people who do the same will help you a lot. That doesn't mean you should just go out and ditch any friends who don't eat healthily, of course not! But if you regularly interact with people who live in the way you want to live, then they will become your benchmark. They will become your "norm" and not only will you find it easier to rise to the occasion to live the same, well, it will just become "normal" for you to live like that.

When I am out in the "normal" world, I sometime feel like a bit of a freak. I mean, I exercise more than 12 times a week (because it's my job not cos I'm a fanatic!) and my standard of what food is and isn't healthy are, well, a fair bit higher than most others. But when I hang out in "fitness instructors" world, it is normal to exercise as much as I do. In "fitness instructors" world my physique is also normal, whereas in "normal" world, to some I am skinny or petite.

Here's an example of how you can step out of the norm without ditching your friends:

Let's pretend you've decided for yourself that you're not going to eat pizza anymore, but there's been a long-standing tradition amongst you and your friends... a weekly movie & pizza. Instead of ditching your long-time friends for gym junkies, why not find a buddy amongst them who has also been thinking about eating healthier, and is willing to not eat pizza together with you? Rather than missing out on the weekly festivities, the two of you can still go to movie night. Instead of pizza, you could split a healthier option meal together - say, roast chicken and a gigantic, colourful garden salad.

Don't make a big fuss of it and certainly don't make an issue of the pizza. Just do what you feel is best for you whilst maintaining the fun and relationships. Everyone wins! And who knows, over time you might find yourself with a few additional converts to healthier eating... although there will always be that one person who likes to add a handful (or two) of chips to their meal, haha!