When you’re full, you are not as strongly tempted to eat foods outside the program. A stomach full of well-prepared high-carbohydrate, low-fat foods effectively curbs your tendency to cheat yourself out of great looks and great health. Meanwhile, you’ll appear to be a tower of strength and discipline to those around you – and you’ll feel like one.

Encourage your present friends to be active so that you can continue to enjoy recreation with them.

All of us resist growth to some extent. It’s built in; I’m convinced of it. To paraphrase Tom Hanks’s character in the movie A League of Their Own, if growth were easy, everybody would be doing it. But that’s what makes it great.

You don’t realize that some part of your brain is spinning out little scenarios of how much worse your future will be if you change. This keeps you from growing into a better and happier existence.

It also contributes to the feeling of fullness you get from your next meal, which may be four or five hours later.

Keep those people close who support your efforts and do not try to sabotage you. Ask.

If your partner rejects your efforts to regain your health, he or she should consider what it would feel like to be sleeping next to an empty place at night, instead of you. Encourage.

Meanwhile, find new friends who are also involved in healthful approaches to life by frequenting health-food stores and restaurants or by attending lectures.

Also, as you start to feel better thanks to your diet and exercise program, the positive cycle encourages its own continuation. This.

If many of your meals are eaten away from home, make the situations meet your needs. Go to restaurants that offer at least one delicious, nutritious item. Ask the waiter to remove the butter and olive oil from the table. Accept invitations to dinner from friends who eat and live healthfully. Bring healthful foods with you whenever possible.