Here are some warning signs that your weight loss may be harming your relationship (and how to handle it):

• You start thinking negatively about your partner’s weight. Before we get into the negative reactions your partner might have, let’s start with you. It’s common for someone who is being successful in their weight loss program to want others around them to experience the same success. However, in some cases, that will turn into negative feelings about your partner because they’re not losing weight. Remember that your partner is human, too, and that if he’s not ready to lose weight it’s OK. Remember that your relationship isn’t based on whether or not one or both of you loses weight.
• You resent your partner’s habits. Another possible problem you might face is feeling resentment toward your partner. Perhaps you’re a bit jealous that she can eat chocolate cake every night, or you wish you didn’t have to order the salad when she orders steak. Here again, you need to remember that you’re working at achieving a goal, and that this is about your sacrifices, not your partner’s indulgences.
• Your partner sabotages you. Sometimes, the sabotage is innocent. Your husband might offer you a piece of pie for dessert, and insist that you can “work it off tomorrow.” Sometimes, however, that sabotage becomes almost passive-aggressive. Maybe your wife won’t quit buying Twinkies at the store, or she’ll buy whole milk instead of skim. If you see these kinds of behaviors, talk with your partner and try to come to some sort of understanding.
• Your partner makes negative comments about how your body is changing. Believe it or not, it happens. In many cases, this simply comes from fear. He’s afraid that you won’t look like you always have, or that you’ll lose so much weight that you’ll no longer want to be with him. Here again, communication is key. In many cases, this might even be a good opportunity to try to bring your partner along with you on your weight loss journey.

It’s not always easy to do, however. Just because you’re excited about weight loss doesn’t mean that the people around you are excited. In fact, they might be downright hostile. For example, your husband might be worried that you’ll want to stop visiting his favorite buffet. Your best friend might be worried that you’re going to lose so much weight that she’ll feel insecure about her own weight when she’s around you.

It’s all about communication

You need to start by being totally open and honest with your partner and with your friends. Tell them how important these new goals are for you. Talk about how you want to be more healthy and be around longer to enjoy their company, and that weight loss is an important part of that process. You might ask if they want to join you in your weight loss journey. Ask your partner and your friends to be happy for you and excited for you, and ask them to encourage you when it gets rough.

Leading by example

Sometimes, friends and family will be almost hostile. You might just be on your own. When that happens, you need to be able to stick to your weight loss goals. Once your family and friends see the progress that you make, they will be inspired. That doesn’t mean they’re going to join you, but once they see how happy you have become when you reach your goals, they will at the very least probably be more supportive.

A little extra outside help

Sometimes, you still need support and encouragement. There are plenty of places to find just that. You might join a support group for weight loss. You might find an online community of other folks who are trying to lose weight. There are plenty of people out there who are able to give you the support you need, even if your friends and family aren’t able to do so at the moment.

Here are some of the features you’ll find at SparkPeople that may be able to help you with your weight loss journey:

• Message boards and groups. One of things many people look for in a weight loss website is a place to interact with other people. Before the Internet, groups like Weight Watchers were popular, in part, because it gave people a way to connect with others who were also trying to lose weight. The message boards and groups at SparkPeople are many and varied. You can find groups on special interest topics such as hobbies, and you can find groups based on age or number of pounds you’d like to lose.
• Personal pages and journals. While not everyone has a desire to display their weight loss journey on the Internet, many people find that it gives them some added accountability. SparkPeople lets its users set up their own page and journal or blog. There, they can talk about their progress, their struggles and more.
• Educational tools. There are a number of areas you can learn about at SparkPeople. You can learn about fitness and nutrition. You can learn how to do certain exercises, even watching a video instruction. You can read inspiring stories about others’ weight loss success. The site is a wealth of weight loss information.
• Diet design and tracking tools. SparkPeople lets you create a custom diet and exercise plan to suit your own goals and needs. You can track as little or as much as you want. You can create a food journal that records everything you eat and when. Best of all, you don’t have to go looking up the nutritional information for the food you enter into your journal, as the SparkPeople database has a large amount of food data already contained within. It even allows you to share nutritional data you manually enter with others, and have access to their shared data.
• Fitness tracking. You can also design and track your own fitness program. Simply enter the particular exercises you engage in and the SparkPeople system will record the number of calories that you burn, helping you to figure out how best to reach your weight loss goals.

There are three primary concerns that someone who’s severely overweight – in the “morbidly obese” category in terms of body fat: determination, safety and capability.

Determination

Any successful weight loss program begins with a decision that you’re going to do whatever it takes to lose the weight that you need to lose. What many people don’t realize, however, is that to be successful you’re going to need to make that very same decision over and over again – usually several times a day. And, rather than getting easier as it goes along, it can be harder to stay determined. The basic willpower that’s required for weight loss is something that can’t be learned and that can’t be provided through surgery or a medication of some sort. It’s something that you need to develop.

Safety

When you’re very big, one of the biggest concerns when you start an exercise or weight loss program should be your own safety. Obesity can cause specific physical problems. You might have medical conditions that will affect what kind of exercises you can do and how often. You might just have specific physical limitations that come from a sedentary lifestyle. Things like weakness, muscle pains and severe inflexibility can be major barriers to a weight loss program. Start by visiting your doctor. Your doctor can help you figure out what you can and cannot do. Find out what you should avoid, and what should work for you. Consider asking for a referral to a nutritionist, and look into the possibility of a personal trainer.

Capability

In many cases, the biggest obstacle to weight loss is knowing where to start. You look at all of the possible exercises out there, but your body doesn’t want to let you move the way that it should. You may not fit into the exercise machines at your gym. Even the treadmill or elliptical machine may have a weight limit that you surpass.

The key here is to find exercises you can do. Maybe it’s something like water aerobics. Maybe it’s simply a process of modifying exercises to meet your capabilities. Here again, getting some advice from an exercise expert is a wonderful first step.

Ultimately, you’re going to face many challenges in your weight loss journey. Knowing what they might be ahead of time will help you to create the best solution when those problems and challenges do arise.

Weight gain isn’t any more “contagious” than weight loss is, of course. However, weight gain can be spread socially. That is, it moves from one person to another and from one group to another through specific behaviors and social activities. For example, if a group of friends goes out together on a Friday night and someone consistently suggests the all-you-can-eat buffet, eventually others in the group are going to gain weight. Likewise, if a friend gains 20 pounds, you’re not going to feel nearly as bad about the 5 pounds you gained.

So, what do you do? If you’ve got weight loss goals and you have friends that are overweight or obese, should you just trade them all in for skinnier versions? While that’s one way to go, it’s probably not the best way for a whole host of reasons. We’re not going to judge you, but let’s face it: dumping your fat friends because you don’t want to be fat is pretty cold.

Instead, here are some suggestions:

• Join a gym with a fat friend. Lose some weight together. In some cases, you might even be able to get a membership discount or referral bonus if you join together. Turn gym time into social time. It’ll make workouts more fun and weight loss just a little bit less painfull.
• Engage in fitness related social activities. For example, you might organize a lunchtime basketball league. You might get your friends to go out bowling together (just watch out for the beer and pretzels).
• Avoid food related social activities. Let’s face it: when you’re fat, you can be fat with a group of people. When you diet, you diet alone. Instead of tempting yourself with that Friday buffet, consider opting out of activities with your friends that revolve around food.

Unfortunately, there are some possible side effects and risks involved with weight loss surgery. Here are some of the potential problems you can face after you have had weight loss surgery:

• Surgical complications. Any time you have abdominal surgery, there’s a risk of complications. When it comes to weight loss surgery, you can be looking at things such as infections, hernias, and situations where the staple line breaks or the stomach outlets stretch, both effectively making the surgery useless.
• Gallstones. It’s estimated that about a third of obese people who get gastric bypass surgery will, at some point, develop gallstones. In essence, gallstones are clumps of cholesterol that appear in the gallbladder. Rapid weight loss, regardless of the cause, increases the risk for gallstones. Your doctor may be able to reduce this risk with a bile supplement after your weight loss surgery.
• Vomiting. It’s common for individuals who have had a restrictive weight loss surgery to find that, if they don’t chew their food particles well, they experience vomiting.
• Nutritional problems. It’s also common for people who undergo weight loss surgery to wind up with certain nutritional deficiencies. Some of the most common include anemia, osteoporosis and bone diseases. You may be able to mitigate the risks of these problems by taking nutritional supplements.
• Dumping. A weight loss surgery that affects how food is absorbed can create a situation in which contents move too fast through your digestive system, leading to things like nausea, weakness, sweating, faintness and, occasionally, diarrhea after eating.

If you’re considering weight loss surgery, make sure you talk with your doctor about the potential risks involved in the procedure, and that you’re willing to take those risks.

1. Use small plates. It is shown that people tend to shy away from going back for seconds when they are in a public setting. This is a great way to stay the weight loss course, while enjoying the bounty before you. You do this by using a small plate instead of the serving platter you hope to use. Using a small plate means you have less room to shove extra food on. It also means you have to be pickier when it comes to what food you eat. It maybe rough to limit yourself to one small plate of fudge, but your weight loss goals will love you for it.

2. Stop your snacking. The killer to any weight loss lifestyle comes in the form of snacking. Holiday potlucks are the thorn to any well-laid weight loss plans. The reason is that food tends to sit out over the course of the day. This leads to nibbles here, a small snack there. Over the course of the day, this snacking tends to have some detrimental affects to your weight loss goals. If you must snack, pick one time during the day to snack and let that be it.

3. Allow yourself to enjoy the food. One of the best things you can do is enjoy the great food you are about to intake. Eat slowly, savor the goodness, and enjoy the hard work you have put forth in that rich fudge. Doing this simple act will allow you to consume smaller portions. Add this tip with using smaller plates and you have a recipe for weight loss success.

4. Preplan your week. If you know there are going to be five holiday parties in one week, you will want to plan your meals accordingly. Having a lunch buffet at work may mean you limit your dinner that night. It also means you need to plan on healthier eating habits for that week. Almost no holiday eating happens without a bit of notice.

5. Avoidance is your friend. When all else fails, just avoid the food buffets. This maybe hard if the food sits in a place you need to pass through, but avoiding that stash of cookies is a great way to keep your weight loss in mind. By keeping away from the heaps of food, you reduce your chances of snacking, or just grabbing one cookie as you pass by. Avoiding food may also mean you have to skip out on one dinner in a week full of holiday parties. This is your health, and nobody can fault you for keeping your weight loss a priority.

The holidays are full of food, but that is no reason to throw your weight loss out the window. Remember, enjoy the food, but enjoy it in small delightful amounts.

Skip the sugar – Sugar and the holidays go hand in hand, or so it seems. Despite what would seem like a perfect pair, nothing can destroy some weight loss goals quite like gobs and gobs of sugar. This is the perfect time to start looking for some sugar substitutes.

You can often replace sugar with honey. Do keep in mind that honey can raise a persons blood sugar levels higher than that of cane sugar. The advantage to honey is that it is much healthier for you. You can also look at things like sugar substitutes known as Splenda, Stevia, and NutraSweet just to name a few. Do your research on these before you use them, as some people do not like how some of these are manufactured sweeteners.

Reduce butter and oil – Have you ever noticed how many of grandpa’s best winter recipes call for hordes of butter and oil? Most winter foods are made in a way to help tack on a layer of body fat as insulation in the cold months. Nothing will decimate your weight loss goals quicker than eating some holiday bread that consists of two sticks of cinnamon butter. This is a perfect time to just reduce the amount of butter and oil that goes into recipes. Your recipe may end up a bit dryer thanks to this, but your weight loss lifestyle will not be in jeopardy.

Cut the cream – One last item to cut is cream. Yes, cream makes some great additions to things like fudge, breads, and holiday sauces, but it will trounce all over your weight loss achievements from the past few months. You can do two things for cutting cream. The first is to just find a replacement for cream. Water may work well in your recipe. Another way to cut cream is to cut the amount of cream you use in your recipes. By this, instead of using a full cup of cream, use ½ a cup of cream combined with ½ a cup of water or skim milk. This cuts the fat and calories, while keeping you on the road to weight loss success.

Make smaller portions – The last thing you can do that people may not even notice is to make smaller portions of food. If you are making cookies, make smaller cookies. Cut holiday breads into thinner slices, same with pies. When shelling out bountiful dinners, use smaller portions and load up on healthier items like steamed veggies. You can also use smaller plates as many folks will only load up one plate of food. Smaller portions are a sure fire way to helping keep you, and your guests, on the road to weight loss success.

If you are the grand pubah in the kitchen, then you have full control over how weight loss friendly your holiday meals are. Keep your food eye appealing and nobody will even notice that you used a fraction of the sugar than what you were originally supposed to.

Here are some things you should keep in mind when you’re evaluating the weight loss claims of any given product:

• If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. There are no proven miracle cures when it comes to weight loss. The fact of the matter is that weight loss takes work. If a product promises a weight loss shortcut and does so in a way that claims you can eat anything you want whenever you want, it’s probably false.
• Weight loss products aren’t regulated by the FDA. Unless a medication has gone through clinical trials and had the approval of the Food and Drug Administration, you can’t be sure that it will do what it says it will do, or what side effects it might have. If products are proven to be harmful, of course, they will be taken off the market, but a manufacturer can claim that a product helps with weight loss without having to prove it in any way, shape or form.
• That doesn’t mean they don’t work. Having said all of that, the fact that a product doesn’t have federal oversight doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. It just means it hasn’t been proven to do so in a clinical way under the watchful eye of the FDA. If a product seems to have a decent reputation, it might be worth a shot, but without FDA oversight it’s always “buyer beware.”

Here are three foods that you need to add into your diet and always have on hand if you want to get a handle on your weight loss:

1. Salmon. Fish in general is good for you, and an important part of getting a balanced diet. It’s a great way to get protein without having to rely on red meat. Salmon, in particular, is especially healthy. It’s chock full of Omega-3 fatty acids which, along with that protein, will help keep hunger at bay. If you purchase canned salmon you can use it as a replacement for tuna on a sandwich. (Just make sure that you choose a low-fat and low-calorie salad dressing, otherwise you’re defeating the purpose.) Canned wild salmon is not that expensive, and is a great way to get those important nutrients for just a few calories.
2. Sweet potatoes. Technically, these aren’t a potato at all, but a different sort of root vegetable. That’s a good thing, too, because potatoes are full of starch and carbohydrates. Sweet potatoes are an excellent source of Vitamin C, and they’re also a great place to get fiber. You can replace potatoes in many setting with sweet potatoes, as well. You can bake them, you can roast them and you can even mash them. The key with sweet potatoes is to cook them all the way through, and a great way to do that is by slicing the larger ones into medallions. You’ll also want to peel them before you eat them. They’re good cold, so they make decent leftovers as well.
3. Rice. Brown rice, especially, is both nutritious, low in calorie count and high in fiber. It’s a great side dish, and it makes wonderful filler. You can even have it as a hot cereal at breakfast time, and it goes well with a sprinkling of cinnamon and some skim milk. It’s pretty inexpensive, and even more so if you buy it in bulk.