Self reliance and accountability are vital necessities in life, yet human connection cannot be minimized as equally important. Traveling the weight loss and exercise journeys alone contains potential hazardous risk of failure. Community support, our external environment, and helping others while holding oneself accountable are a combined union for successful results. When asked what happens when the support dissipates, leaving me alone to fly solo, will I succeed upon this journey? Conclusively my thirty years of experience answers definitively I shall never seek weight loss and exercise alone. Rather than living in a bubble with sole self reliance, accessing community support encourages human connection and a web of consistent accountability. Although courageous and ambitious, martyrdom I seek not. A solo expedition increases failure rate considerably. Community support is a strategic advantage in winning the weight loss war.
Hardwired for human connection, we utilize communities consistently to support our families, education, and lifestyles daily. Companies, jobs, and careers require human support networks to accomplish most tasks. Raising families without community support through carpools, emotional sustainability, external resources as recreation and education, would fail miserably. In all facets of our existence, the need to rely upon others requires trust, faith, and vulnerability. To empathize, support, and reciprocate help is part of the human condition. Allowing others to raise us up in so many corners of living is no different with a healthy lifestyle. Many studies prove that social, external support to improve weight loss management is crucial. Without it, the risk of relapse is greater. Joining supportive networks of friends and strangers along the same journey is significant for successful long term results.
While being self reliant is notable, seeking support is not weakness. Instead it shows wisdom to recognize the power of community, the strength of common experience to propel group success, and how team bonding causes motivation to help others in order to help yourself. This strategic advantage does not release self accountability. There is no one holding my hand to choose healthy foods, drive me to boot camps, nor make me journal my food intake. Self motivation, determination, and perseverance are still required. Yet orchestrate a union between self accountability and community support, and the power to succeed is strengthened. Going it alone is one option, combining it with the power of many is another. My experience propels me to utilize the latter. Everyone has to make the call for themselves, but community support remains a strategic advantage in my playbook.