A. What a tough call: you rejoice and fill your energy engine with friends and you are used to sharing events with food, what do you do? What a dilemma, you want to spend time with them and you also want to be good to yourself and eat the right food for you! How can you bring in the best of both worlds?
These tips will help you stay focused:

1. In the beginning of your program: put yourself first: avoid situations where you know you will fall to temptation. Once your food cravings are in better control and you feel that you can manage your immediate gratification, then you can go back to these feasts with a predetermined menu. Call the place ahead of going, ask for the menu, and select what you will order before you even go in. Tell your friends you are on a mission and that you'd love their support.
2. Meet with friends: at their homes or at your home and have your diet meal ready. Make it a pot luck so that everybody brings something to share and suggest healthy meals for all. Am I taking all the fun out? Replace the fun of the meal with the fun of being around friends where food is not the center but just an add on.
3. Take a meal with you everywhere you go: You will dislike saying no to a gathering "because I can't enjoy eating what I want with you." Instead, say, "Sure, I'd love to spend time with you" and make sure you bring your meal. Focus on the friendship instead of the food.

A. You have started your new healthy habits, eating better, exercising, sleeping better and more, and you now feel like you are going out of your mind! You thought this was going to be a lot easier and you now realize it's a lot harder. Being healthy and well is a lot of work, particularly during the transition to health and wellness. The good news is it gets better and easier. As time goes by and you continue to improve and feel better, you want to continue your healthy lifestyle and even miss your exercise if you need to skip it for whatever reason.
These tips will help you stay focused:

1. Look at things with the proper perspective: implementing a healthy diet, exercising regularly and bringing healthy lifestyle strategies to your life is a means to an end of living a life of health and wellness. The diet, exercise, sleep and relaxation are a means to an end and not the end itself. Just like when you learned new skills: writing, math, public speaking, business and more, you went through courses that may not have been as interesting but you knew they were going to be important for your work or career. Keep that end in mind and your journey will become easier. Think of the tough times like obstacles you need to surpass to achieve your end goal.
2. Implement small steps first: many people who start a diet think they can shed too many pounds from the get go. Others expect to run a marathon the first week of their new exercise schedule. The trick is to break the work that needs to be done into small steps that are achievable and measurable. Maybe you can't get yourself to exercise at the gym, so you don't even walk for a half hour outside. Start walking ten minutes every day and once you've mastered this, then set the new goal of twenty, working your way up until you can go work out at the gym. This will serve as your positive reinforcement and will make your journey easier every time.
3. Keep going! Your journey may have looked easier before you started but don't give up! Very few people have perfect starts and flawless journeys. It's healthier—and wiser—to be prepared for drawbacks along the way. Focus on your end goal and don't get discouraged if perfection wasn't on your side. Remember: the more you do it, the easier it gets and the easier it gets, the more you'll do it!

A.

Great question, Jill. You first need to become aware and recognize the triggers that will make you fall in a trap with self-sabotaging behavior. The triggers are different for different people: nice events may trigger people to overdo good-feeling behaviors without limits (such as overeating) or emotional triggers that make people feel sad lead the person to overeating for immediate gratification (feel better fast). Either way, we can't avoid the triggers, they will be right in front of us, but we must learn to master the situation and react in a healthier way. In other words, although we will continue to be exposed to these situations, we will prevent the self-sabotaging behavior from happening by replacing the bad with more positive behavior. Once you become aware of the triggers, be proactive by being ready to replace the bad behavior with good behavior.

These tips will help you stay focused:

1. Focus on the end point: you are on a journey and have an end in mind. Think of your healthy image that reflects your final goals. This may be feeling great about jogging on the beach, feeling great in your dream outfit, and having a desired activity where you see yourself glowing. Get pictures of these ideal situations and remind yourself of where you are planning to be.
2. Don't despair if you have a setback: it will take a while to master the trigger trap but always implement new behaviors so that you are better prepared every time.
3. Give yourself a pat on the back when you master the situation: once you succeed, it gets easier and easier, until your new behavior takes over without you even thinking about it. Eventually, you will even forget about the trigger when you've excelled at implementing the new positive behavior!