Embarking on a weight loss journey elicits an array of feelings. You might feel nervous, anxious, motivated, frightful, happy, etc. This is a new mission for you. A mission that you will be on for the entirety of your life. Once you understand the importance of living a healthy lifestyle, you cannot unlearn the knowledge you have gathered. Personally, I will always be thinking of calories, exercising, and staying on my fitness journey. I will never be able to lead a sedentary life where my health takes a back seat to other events and responsibilities.

One thing many of us have come to understand is that not everyone wants to live a healthier life. Many people simply do not care about macro and micro nutrients, running a caloric deficit, exercising regularly, etc. For the average person, they never take their health seriously until they are forced to by a serious health complication. The most drastic changes you will notice between yourself and others is in the behavior that each of you display. Once you learn how to live a healthy lifestyle and you start to prioritize your well-being you will notice that many of your friends’ have behaviors that are completely different from your own.

When I started my weight loss journey back in 2016, I would invite many people out to walk on a particular trail I enjoyed on Sunday afternoons. I would rarely get anyone to take up my offer. I noticed that people would rather go out to eat, watch football, sit at home and watch movies, or do something else that required very little physical activity. The deeper I got into my journey the more drastic a difference in behavior that I saw between myself and others. Others would not worry about the amount of calories they ate when they went to a restaurant, while I was always asking the waitress how many calories were in a particular item. After work, I would go directly to the gym for a taxing physical workout, while others would go to the bar to enjoy happy hour. You will notice that you start to do things and have interests that are different from that of other people in your life, especially your friends.

Let me establish that putting your health as a priority doesn’t make you any better than someone who doesn’t. It simply means that you care about your health and are performing the actions that it takes to keep yourself in shape. However, you will notice that your friends view you differently now, as opposed to before when you were partaking in the same activities as them. You will get jokes about how you’re becoming a health nut, and as you lose weight you will get comments on your physique. They may claim you are too muscular now, or that you are too skinny now. Even more so you will get hate.  Imagine that someone you considered a friend has decided to hate on you simply for you bettering yourself. These are just a few consequences that you can expect as you take control of your health and become physically fit.

More than likely, your friends have the same opportunities as you to get them self in shape, but they choose not to. They either lack the motivation, dedication, or drive. Understand that you being on your fitness journey is you bettering yourself. You are getting better. And when you get better, people notice you getting better. However, not only do people notice you getting better, they notice themselves staying the same. This is what breeds envy and hate. If you were to stay just like them there would be no reason for them to treat you any differently. All of you together would be doing the same activities and partaking in the same events, therefore, you would be just like them. However, you have changed for the better and now they assume that you think poorly of them, or they assume that you are trying to show off.

Things like you wearing a tank top outside will be taken as a you trying to one up them. You posting a clip, or photo of you exercising on your social media will be taken as a jab. Even you ordering a healthier option at a restaurant, which is different from what everyone else ordered, can make you seem like the bad person. You must know that while there are many of us out here to help motivate and inspire you on your fitness journey, often times you will travel alone. On your path, you will meet many new people, but you will also lose others who chose not to come along with you. Do not feel bad, or quit on your journey for having to distance yourself from people who are holding your back. I’ve done this in the past and I’ve only come out a better person. I appreciate the support and friendship that I may have had with a person, but ultimately I have to do what is best for me and you have to do what is best for you. Remember, everyone can stand at the bottom of the pyramid, but only one person can stand at the top.