a tribute to social support

probably one of the biggest differences in my current body transformation effort and all the ones that came before is that this time i incorporated two fundamental aspects of the fat loss puzzle that i had always underestimated before: social support and accountability. i'm a pretty driven and independent persona and in all my past fat loss efforts, i had always tried to do it completely on my own. i think this is a very common trap for people because in many ways it's a bit embarrassing to admit that "i'm trying to lose weight." but if you just come out and make that statement to the people in your life, it will seriously increase your chances of success, especially if you can share your goals with people you know will be supportive. one of the problems i always ran into in the past was that, since i hadn't openly admitted that i was trying to lose weight, it was always easier for to cheat on my nutrition plan or skip a workout than it was to explain why i wasn't eating or drinking xyz or why i couldn't party until 5am. and it's soooo much easier to let yourself off the hook if you are the only one who knows what you are trying to do. but if you tell the people in your life your intentions beforehand, you have a pretty powerful reason to stay on track and you might just find a whole new source of support to boot. for example, it was definitely a little weird for me to admit to my roommates that i was embarking on a fat loss journey and that i planed to reach 15% body fat and do everything it took to get me there. but doing this all of a sudden made me accountable to the people with whom i share a fridge and i was actually surprised by how encouraging they were. it made my life so much easier because they knew what i was doing and so i could just be honest about my reasons for not wanting to eat dessert or for why i couldn't go out and party all night. it also allowed me to increase my personal accountability in little ways by doing things like putting a "15% by april 14th" sign on the fridge, something i never would have done if i hadn't let my roommates in on the action. but unless the people around you are working to make similar changes, sometimes just telling the people in your life isn't enough. to really take advantage of the awesome power of social support, you need to find a group of like-minded people who would like to make similar changes and are likely to face similar challenges along the way. i was able to find this amazing group of people at the ttmembers.com forum. these were people who were using the same workouts as i was, who were facing the trials and tribulations of trying to eat clean in our junk-food and temptation filled world, and who were committed to figuring out a way to have all that come together and make it work. the amazing thing about being a part of a group like this is that you have access to such a diversity of experiences and information that when you need an answer to a question you have one, you can learn from others' triumphs as well as their mistakes, when you are rocking out there are people there to cheer you on, when you stumble there are people there to kick your butt back into gear, not to mention that it's incredibly motivating to keep yourself on track when there are so many other people out there that are losing fat and inches week after week. as i mentioned before i always thought that i could do it on my own, but i think that creating added accountability and finally finding social support were truly pivotal in making my current effort a success. i think it's hard to simply explain how powerful the social support aspect can be...you really do just have to experience it for yourself.