Benefits to my family

I started modifying my diet at the beginning of the year and I had surgery about 6 weeks ago.  While I knew that this would be a life changing event for me, no one in my family, including myself, knew the benefits it would have for everyone else.  

I live with my two partners.  One of them, R, is a marathoner and while his body weight is pretty much perfect, he still wants to lose 5% body fat.  Since my cooking has changed, he's making swifter progress to his own goal.  He has started using protein shakes after working out, and has learned a lot about nutrition through my own research and sharing with him.  This is superb.  

My other partner, P, is not a marathoner.  He was morbidly obese when I started this process and now he's just obese, which is AWESOME.  He's lost about 20 pounds, has started swimming twice a week, and stopped going back for seconds at meals.  (I'm pretty sure that last one isn't because he doesn't like the food I'm cooking!)  He has cut out sodas at work/home and now only has soda (his true weakness) when he is out at restaurants, and he doesn't get refills.  

It's really awesome how my own better habits and research have helped the other members of my family.  I was hoping that this would be a side effect, but I also know that these things aren't things you can push on people however much you might want to!  It's helpful that I'm the main cooker and shopper in the house so it's rare for food to come into the house that I didn't have some part in and we rarely eat out.  I could not be happier with all the awesome improvements this process has brought to my entire household.  

I think that is great that you can be a positive influence. Funny how you have two ends of the spectrums for partners. So does your partner who is obese ever want to have surgery? Just curious because my best friend said if it worked for me he may do it. I don't think he will but he said it.lol

It is unlikely that P would ever have surgery, unless he developed something that could only be fixed with the surgery.  He's fairly good at losing (and maintaining) weight loss on his own when he wants to.  He just doesn't often care about it!

Yeah you got to want it to get this surgery. I did it for health reasons.

Isn't that the best feeling? I did the surgery for my own health. My thought was I was going to be selfish for a bit and make myself a priority. A week before I had surgery (5 weeks ago) my husband started using MyFitnessPal and watching his calorie intake, as a result he's lost 25lbs. After my daughter saw the progress we were making she started making better food choices, tracking her food too and she's lost about 5 lbs in the last couple of weeks. I knew this was going to be a life changer for me. I didn't expect the pleasant surprise of everyone in the household trying to get healthy too. I'm very thrilled.

That's awesome that your husband and daughter have joined you for the ride :)

I don't live with her, but since I've begun this process, my sister has also started tracking her food using myfitnesspal and has lost about 15 pounds. I don't know if it's sibling rivalry (not wanting to be the only "fat" one) or if I've inspired her, but I'm so happy that she has decided to live a healthier lifestyle. And as a result, her husband has also lost weight!

How great that your sister is inspired by you!  Even if she's just really inspired by the urge to beat you ;)  If it helps her improve her health, that's what matters.