If you’re trying to lose weight alone, the entire process might be a bit difficult. But what if you had the support of 50 or even 100 other individuals you know?
With some of these tips, you might be able to do just that by getting your office mates to join in with your weight loss attempt.
In this article I’m going to discuss some different methods for improving your weight loss attempts by getting your office or workplace colleagues to join in.
Why Even Consider This?
You might be asking why you would even want to consider getting your office mates on board with your weight loss attempts. The answer really is quite simple.
First, by getting a large group of people that you consider to be friends to jump into a weight loss journey alongside of you, you essentially turn the process into a collaborative effort, rather than a singular one.
Ensuring consistency and effectiveness during a body transformation can be tough. You’ll probably struggle a bit and potentially even take a few wrong turns. Not to mention, without any support, hitting plateaus can be extremely difficult to handle.
When you turn your efforts into a collaborative one, you have a large base of support and accountability. Not to mention, you get to understand that many people go through the very same struggles as you.
Truthfully, this is one of the biggest reasons why our Facebook group has been so successful. If you have a question, you literally have the opportunity to hear differing perspectives from thousands of similar people.
While an office effort will obviously be with a smaller community, it’s essentially quite similar. Not to mention, you may just motivate someone to change their life too, even though they might never have even considered doing so on their own.
Bottom Line: Turning your weight loss attempt into a collaborative one will benefit both yourself and everyone else of course.
Ask Your Good Friends And Colleagues First
Before you go shouting off the rooftops that you want people to join you, I suggest first talking with your closest colleagues and see how they feel about the idea.
The reason for doing this is twofold.
First, by assessing the climate of your office by speaking with friends, you’ll be able to understand if your co-workers would actually be on board with the idea. Close friends will likely give you an honest opinion and will help you determine if the idea is actually plausible in your work environment.
Second, it’s important to remember that body weight and image is a very delicate situation. Imagine going up to your overweight office mate and asking if they want to lose weight.
By sticking with friends first, it’s less likely that they’ll be offended by you asking them, especially if you have an opportunity to explain.
Not to mention, once you ask a few people and they decide to get on board, word of mouth will probably do most of your work for you.
Bottom Line: Rather than asking random people if they want to join, ask close friends first. This first allows you to assess interest, but it’ll also help avoid you unintentionally offending someone in the process.
Get The Management On Board
One of the cool things about health and fitness becoming more popular is that many companies view physical activity as a beneficial practice. In fact, many companies actually offer paid incentives or free memberships to gyms.
I suggest after you get a few people on board, go to your management and ask if they’d be willing to support a company-wide weight loss challenge. Often times, companies will put up cash or gift card rewards for people who did best during the challenge.
By getting your management on board, you not only give people greater incentives to actually participate and achieve their goals, but you also create an environment where everyone wants everyone else to succeed.
Not to mention, if management is on board, it’s likely they may also begin to make healthier choices available in the office, such as the foods they stock the kitchen with and, if you’re lucky, the types of lunches they order for the office.
Bottom Line: By getting management on board, you increase the likelihood that everyone will be involved, plus you also might be able to get the company to sponsor the challenge with reward incentives.
Bring Healthy Food Options To Share
Sometimes, encouraging others to be healthier can be difficult. Whether they don’t care to lose weight or simply don’t have the energy to participate, it might be up to you to help them along.
In this case, I suggest bringing healthy food options into the office that you can share. Doing so will first allow people to get a feel for what weight loss snacks actually are, while also giving them the opportunity to join with no risk.
One of the major points of contention with weight loss is that people don’t want to commit their time and money. If you create an opportunity for people to try it for free, they can get an understanding of what’s involved, with little to no risk for them.
Not to mention, free food is usually the best way to get anyone’s attention.
Bottom Line: If you’re unsure of the receptiveness of your co-workers to this new challenge, consider bringing in free food to share so people can get their foot in the door with little to no risk on their part.
Have Group Workout Sessions
Just as you probably have a group of colleagues that you eat lunch with, consider taking that same group to workout with you over lunchtime.
One of the scariest steps to a new routine is going to a gym. People are worried about judgment or doing something they deem may make them look stupid. By going in a group however, you take the spotlight off of individuals, giving them a chance to get over fear and begin working out.
While this won’t work for everyone, being in a group setting is much less intimidating than taking the step to go to the gym alone.
Bottom Line: Consider getting a group of individuals to workout together to avoid fear of being alone in the gym. Doing so should increase the likelihood that people will join.
Get Your Office On Board With Your Weight Loss
Losing weight on your own can be a bit difficult but having a strong support group, such as your office mates and co-workers might be the push you need to be successful.
With these tips, consider trying to get a group of your closest colleagues to join in. Additionally, even consider trying to get management on board with the idea.
Doing so might not only change your life, but the lives of many others as well.
