How to approach a friend about their diet without being pushy?

plate with peas

Dear 300 pounds,

I have a friend who is trying to do calorie restriction to lose weight.  But I think that she is not eating enough.  How should I approach the conversation with her and not come across as pushy?  I don’t want her to feel like she is under a microscope around me when she eats.

-Sunbuddy

Dear Sunbuddy,

That is an interesting question…  When someone says they need to lose weight many people (and at a time myself) go down this slippery slope of starving oneself as a method to lose weight. Many people do not have success with this method and if they do have success, you can bet your bottom dollar that they would gain the weight back once they go back to their normal eating routine… I think many people do this because they don’t know where to start and they figure if they restrict their eating they will lose weight… Not so much… So back to your question, “How do you approach your friend with this conversation without being pushy?”

I would sit down and have a heart-to-heart conversation with them, preferably not immediately before or after the she is about to eat. You do not want seem judgmental.  The tone of the conversation would be something like, “As your friend I’m worried about you, I know you trying to lose weight and I want to support you in your journey but I think the calorie restriction method is not the safest method and you may be doing more harm than good, by putting your body in starvation mode.“ Then I would offer up other options like, hiring a trainer or nutritionist to make a diet plan for them, offer to exercise with them, or any type of support you are willing to offer.

With that said, just know this it is a touchy subject. During the conversation look for cues to see if your friend is receptive to what you are saying. If it seems like they are not feeling what you are talking about, I would say something like, “As your friend I just wanted to let you know that I’m worried about you and then transition into another subject. You have to meet people where they are at and your friend may not be ready to receive your concerns and in that case you got to let it work itself out and just give them the support they want as they go through motions… I hope I was some help… Good luck with your conversation with your friend.

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How would you approach your friend about their diet without coming across as  being pushy? Respond in the comments!

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Photo by: Alberto (zumito) Rodriguez / CC BY 2.0

5 Tips to Increase Vegetable Intake

One of the major changes I made during this weight loss journey was to increase my vegetable intake. Being a man I thought that only consist of eating salads (rabbit food) every day. After a while I just got sick and tired of eating rabbit food. The problem then became how do I get enough vegetables without eating rabbit food? After a few months a trial and error here are a few tips that I’ve found success to increase vegetables in my diet.

5 Tips to Increase Vegetable Intake

Eat Soup: There’s nothing better than a warm soup on a cold winter day. They are very easy to cook; it consist of only a few steps; chop up veggies, add liquid based (low sodium, low fat of course) , set it in the slow cooker and forget it. Looking for some soup recipes? Martinus got you covered here are some soup recipes from my fellow FitFluential Ambassadors. Check them out and tell them Martinus sent you.

Make an omelet: This is by far one of my favorite ways to add vegetables to my diet. Chop up your favorite veggies and put it in your omelet.  Don’t have time to make an omelet? Scramble the eggs with the veggies and you’re golden!

Single serve you veggies: After going grocery shopping take 10 -20 minutes to wash, chop and bag your veggies into single servings. This will give you a head start for the week. This will make your vegetables easily accessible when you are looking in the fridge for a snack and the only thing you see is your veggies individually wrapped waiting on you.

Get Creative: Carrots and celery can get so boring at times. Get creative and try other types of vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, bell peppers, zucchini and etc.; for added bonus use hummus for a low calorie, full flavor vegetable dip.

Drink them: Dust that blender off and experiment with different combinations of fruit/veggie smoothies. Your smoothie is too thick? Try using a cheese cloth to strain the smoothie. Here are couple smoothie recipes to get you started.

By incorporating some of these tips into your daily routine your vegetable intake will increase significantly and you might even find new vegetables that you like. Now it’s your turn to “weigh in”! What are some things that you do to increase you vegetable intake? What is your favorite tip from today’s post? What are the best tasting vegetable soup/ smoothie that have ever had/made? What makes it so good?Also here are some other recipes that so you should check out.

If you like what I’m doing please subscribe. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter:@300lbsandrunnin, Like the 300 Pounds and Running Facebook Page, if you are on: Instagram I’m @300PoundsAndRunning, Dailymile: @300lbsandrunnin, and Nike Plus:@300PoundsAndRunning. Lastly I’ve create a group on Facebook called Crushing Goal Together… This is a new support group to help anyone plan, track, and crush goals, be sure to check it out.

Until next time I’m 300 Pounds and Running

 

Weight Loss Food Haul #1

Recently someone ask me if I was on some type of special diet, my response was know I don’t do I diets…this weight loss journey is about changing my lifestyle. When I think of diets I think of something temporary, something that will last about six months and then you are back to your regular scheduled program. What I’m doing is for life…it’s like a marriage, “until death do us apart,” for +26 years I’ve known what it’s like to be obese. It’s about time to know what it is to be at a healthy weight.. Then they ask, “Well what do I eat?What do I both from the grocery store?” Since I got my groceries deliveries a couple of days ago I thought that would be a great opportunity to show what I buy form the grocery store. So I present to you my food haul:

300 Pounds and Running Food Haul

 

Weight Loss Food Haul

 

Natural Whole Almonds, Granny Smith Apples, Broccoli Crowns, Red Cabbage , Celery, Cucumbers, Bulk Garlic, Ginger Root, Cilantro Herbs, Lemons, Cantaloupe Melon, Navel Oranges, Anjou Pears, Green Bell Peppers, Red Bell Peppers,  Golden Whole Pineapple, Salad Nature’s Promise Organics Baby Spinach & Spring Mix, Yellow Squash, Zucchini Squash , Bulk Shelled Walnuts, Beef Stew Meat Boneless Chuck Fresh, Turkey Ground 93% Fat Free Fresh, The Laughing Cow Mini Babybel Cheese Light – 6 ct, Tribe Hummus Sweet Roasted Red Pepper All Natural, All Whites 100% Liquid Egg Whites Fat Free, Dannon Oikos Greek Fruit on the Bottom Yogurt Peach Non Fat, Dannon Oikos Greek Fruit on the Bottom Yogurt Strawberry Non Fat, Lactaid 100% Lactose Free Chocolate Milk Low Fat 1%, LAND O LAKES Eggs Grade A Brown All Natural Large, Nature’s Promise Organics Vanilla Soy Milk Refrigerated, Stop & Shop Greek Fruit on the Bottom Yogurt Strawberry Non Fat, Stop & Shop String Cheese Reduced Fat All Natural – 16 ct, Stop & Shop Peas Green Petite All Natural, Kellogg’s Special K Cereal Vanilla Almond

 

Weight Loss Food Haul

 

Weight Watchers Snack Cakes Lemon Creme – 6 ct, Ronzoni Healthy Harvest Pasta Rotini Whole Grain, Nature’s Promise Organics Broth Chicken Low Sodium Fat Free, Indian Head Yellow Corn Meal Stone Ground, King Arthur Flour 100% Whole Wheat All Natural, Filippo Berio Olive Oil Extra Virgin Cold Pressed All Natural, Jif Peanut Butter Creamy Low Sodium & Less Sugar, Kikkoman Soy Sauce Less Sodium, McCormick Oregano Leaves, Slim-Fast High Protein Creamy Chocolate Powder Shake Mix.

Something to note about this food haul

I like to do my grocery shopping online because it limits me from buying junk food randomly. You know what I’m talking about..when you walk buy the milk and you notice the end cap across from it with Oreo’s and they are on sale 10 for $10. Shopping online cuts all of that stuff out..I make my menu for the week, we (My girlfriend and I) make my list of what we need, then we order them  online sticking to the list. It’s definite take a little more time to do but it always saves us money versus going to the store. Also you might notice that there is not a lot of meats on this list and that because we stay very close to a meat and fish market , so we usually get our meats the day before we are going to cook them.

Check out the vlog of my food haul! I’ve included some of my favorite healthy snacks that I’m order every week. I think you’re going to find this very informative and entertaining.

If you like what I’m doing please subscribe. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter:@300lbsandrunnin, Like the 300 Pounds and Running Facebook Page, if you are on: Instagram I’m @300PoundsAndRunning, Dailymile: @300lbsandrunnin, and Nike Plus:@300PoundsAndRunning. Lastly I’ve create a group on Facebook called Crushing Goal Together… This is a new support group to help anyone plan, track, and crush goals, be sure to check it out.

Until Next Time I’m 300 Pounds and Running!