Finding Support

I mentioned that I am doing my new program along with other people. I'm doing a fitness mix of P90x and Fitness Blender and walking with my brother's girlfriend. I'm doing Whole30 with Hubby. 

Just recently I was talking to a lady at church and how she was doing on her program. She started about a week before I did. I posted (on Facebook) that I loved her daily updates. She was afraid that she was getting annoying because she was posting every day and she didn't want to bother people. I didn't think she was really bothering people, although there is always someone out there who will be offended by something little and will make a comment about posting every day. 

I know. It's happened to me. I used to be a part of a discussion board on a wedding planning website. I was doing well with my workouts and losing weight. Many of the girls were very supportive and joined me in checking in each day. But there were a couple of girls, for whatever reason, that decided to complain and let me know that it was annoying to them that I posted every day. 

I never complained when they posted something that I wasn't interested in, but maybe I'm just not as vocal and I chose just not to read those posts. No big deal. It may not seem like a big deal, so what they don't like your posts. But when you are doing great and feeling good and then all of a sudden someone is criticizing you for how well you are doing, you can lose that steam. Maybe I'm just insecure, but when someone criticizes me for that, I start to wonder if maybe I'm being cocky or arrogant or maybe I'm rubbing it in their face when they are struggling? This is what goes through my mind. Where do you draw the line from being proud to being arrogant? 

Well, this lady from church and I decided that it would be wonderful to have a space that we could check in as often as we want and not have to worry about annoying or bothering people. So we decided to make a Facebook group and open it up to anyone from church or surrounding area that would want to participate. I was thinking it would be a few people maybe that would participate, but we've got quite a few people checking in daily now and it seems to really be helping people. 

It's so helpful to have a safe place to be able to go and share your experiences, to ask for motivation, to share recipes, and to support others in their journey as well. And we don't have to worry about posting too often or anything like that. If someone doesn't want to see our posts, they just don't have to join our group. 

It's already been very helpful for me because I get to where I don't want to work out or just want to be lazy and have something not on my menu, but then I think about those people and how I can't check in with good news if I go off my plan. It has helped me stay on track each time and it feels good to be able to say that I had another successful day. 

So there's an option if anyone wants a support group, to make a Facebook group or join a specific discussion board geared towards that particular subject and find people who are on the same journey. It's amazing how much more motivated you are to do well when you know other people are counting on you and are looking forward to your check in. I think that may be one of the biggest tools to success! Good luck!