Support for your eating plan, whatever it may be, is available in so many places. It is important to take advantage of all opportunities for support as it will strengthen you on your journey into better health and wellness for life.
Over a decade ago I supported a very large group of mostly women and some men and one problem I heard more often than not was how hard it was to get a spouse to change their eating habits when they needed an upgrade in nutrition. I personally did not have to deal with that issue myself. My husband at the time was totally into eating healthy with me, and it was easy to do because it was our lifestyle.
Well, times change. I got divorced, got married again, and this time I married someone who has a thing for sweets, in particular candy. He has eaten candy his whole life and he has told me that his mother and father had loved candy as well.
Candy is part of his DNA. He always has a piece of candy in his pocket or briefcase. Always.
This is hysterical(!) if you knew how I used to preach against the evils of the 'white devil'.
White flour and white sugar were about as ruthless as you could get when it came to processed white powders in my book. It was considered CRACK because I saw how addicted people were to it. When I was able to get people off of the white evil crack, their lives literally changed.
I used to feel sorry for the ladies that struggled getting their husbands to eat healthier. But because I didn't deal with that problem myself, I never really knew what it was like.
Life has a funny way of giving us the opportunity to feel what others feel.
Dear precious ladies who used to come to me years ago and tell me about how hard it was to maintain a perfectly healthy home… I UNDERSTAND NOW. I feel your pain. 
I am alone in being crazy about making my house healthy now, but I can't do it 100% because my husband brings junk in. It is as simple as that and I have not been able to stop it since we first got married. This encouraged me to allow less than ideal foods into my diet over the years. I have been able to avoid obesity, because I became an expert at moderating my food intake, but my eating habits now as compared to the way I used to be, are like night and day.
I used to be the type that would bring my juicer to the family picnic held at my mother-in-law's house and when offered some meat I would say, "I am not partaking in flesh at the moment."
My in-laws would look at me like I was a freak. And I was back then. I was obsessed with my diet and became judgmental of others that were not eating perfectly (like I thought I was).
So that is where I came from. Hard core semi-vegan, juicing fasting for 40 days, I am better than you because I can control my obsessive organic food intake and appear perfect on the outside attitude.
So you can see how my candy eating husband would drive a woman like me CAR AAAAY ZEEE. Once leading a group of over 20,000, never touching white flour or sugar and for sure, it would not be in my home!
But now I was married to the man that would help me heal my soul and he was a semi-hidden junk food junkie. I did see that he ate some junk before we were married, but I thought that I would get rid of that nonsense after we got hitched. After all, I had coached thousands to better health and wellness. I was a pro.
Nope. Not even a pro can overcome candy DNA.
This actually made me angry for a long time, and when we first married and I moved into what I considered a 'toxic' food environment, and found myself slowing gaining weight and peaking out at 15 pounds excess (gross, it was all from JUNK food), I of course blamed him.
I was able to disguise the excess weight initially, because I was so stressed and underweight before getting married. I weighed in at a whopping 108 when I said I do again, over five years ago. I was unhealthy skinny, traveling like crazy, not eating much at all and when I did eat, my choices were getting unhealthier as time went on. My juicer ended up in the cupboard, never to be seen again.
I couldn't be in my new environment and not eat what I considered to be 'toxic food'. It was too hard to buy separate food and feed myself or my girls one thing and the rest of the family something else. I couldn't stand that my girls were exposed to junk and were resorting to eating it on occassion. Fortunately, they didn't have the baggage and old struggles with food that I still had.
I carried a lot of anger and resentment towards my husband and really believed that if I was not living in that environment, I would not have gained that weight and I would not have been so miserable. I began to detest my new life and everything that had to do with it. I had to put the blame somewhere because I was unable to go inside with it. I blamed a lot of things and people for my lack of joy.
It took me years to realize this, but I was not over my food issues and that is why I gained those 15 pounds; I couldn't say no to the junk food and other things that I had forbidden myself to consume for years. When I got my head straight, I dropped the excess and my weight was normal.
Through a lot of work and continuing effort I'm able to overcome unhealthy attitudes and negative relationships with food. I know nothing is perfect, especially food, people and their association to it.
I am no longer angry at my husband for choosing to feed his sweet tooth on a regular basis. He loves salads and vegetarian food and exercises vigorously and consistently. He is not all bad even though he refuses to adopt my evil food nazi mentality.
Sure, there were times when I thought he was a dastardly villain who was pushing candy like a dope dealer slings crack, but I am over that now.
That doesn't mean it doesn't get to me sometimes. Because it does, and recently it got to me. It wasn't a 'mental' getting to me though, but more of a 'physical' getting to me.
Firstly, I do have some excuses, so please indulge me, if you would be so kind.
My plant beds are basically on low or no maintenance because it is winter, so I am not outside so much (I'm a new urban farmer). The cold weather has made me hibernate like a bear and I am not anxious to walk the hills either, which means no exercise. I can't seem to get myself to use our beautiful cross trainer. I just walk by, admire the contraption and say to myself, "I really should exercise on that someday…".
The other issue was the addition of the 100 pounds of Boston Baked Beans into my household. At least baked beans sound healthy.
My husband, always looking for the most cost effective way to shop, found that if he purchased Boston Baked Beans in bulk, he could get a killer deal. The only thing was, he had to buy 100 pounds of them. If he did this, he could get a five pound bag of Boston Baked Beans for $7.95 each. He was all over that.
That is how the beans ended up in my house.
So what did I do when the 20, five pound bags arrived?
I decided to throw caution to the wind again. I am not perfect and sometimes I will just say YES to whatever it is I want. There is value in pleasure…
Look, I take full responsibility here. I chose to taste something and after I tasted it, I liked it too much (and for too long). Yes, I chose to eat those beans each time, but I have to say, if they weren't in the house, I would not have eaten them.
I would never go and buy this type of candy, even if it was in front of me at the store. I would not put any Boston Baked Beans into my shopping cart. Oh no, not me. That's right, I wouldn't put them in my cart, but I had no problem putting them in my mouth!
There is a lesson in this. If you know you might like something that is not good for you, and you know you will like it too much, why bother with it? Why embrace it and make it a part of your life, even for a moment?
Why set yourself up for the challenge of removing it from your life, after the cheap thrill is over?
Between the lazy bear attitude and the Boston Baked Beans, I gained weight. Surprise!
When I finally stepped on the scale and saw with my own two eyes that the number had shifted upwards, I thought, "You deserve this. Are you kidding me, BOSTON BAKED BEANS?!"
I knew my lazy, BBB days were numbered. And those beans really gave me such a righteous stomach ache anyway, I couldn't understand why I continued to eat them. I think there is some addictive substance in the artificial coloring.
Back to the support issue…
Skype chat is a great tool for support. And those of us that are having any type of struggle, in our environment or otherwise, it helps to talk about it.
Even if the other person isn't there, type away… !
You can still use Skype chat to share your ups and downs. Sure, the message may say 'pending', but rest assured that as soon as your support buddy comes on line, they will get all your messages at once (that 'machine gun' Skype alert makes your friend LOOK at what you said).
You can pretty much be guaranteed you will be heard if you use this method (and the volume on their speakers is turned up).
After sharing the news below with my husband first (more on this later), I contacted my buddy to talk about my recent weight hold/drop issue.
She wasn't online.
I still typed.
Here is the Skype chat that explains what happened in the end. Yes, this really happened.
8:43 AM
I lost 7 pounds
8:43 AM
just listening to my CD that tells me to eat less and like the light feeling…
8:44 AM
i only gained the weight because my husband is a bargain shopper….
8:44 AM
he LOVES candy.
8:44 AM
all kinds
8:45 AM
As long as the label says, "Sure to Wreck Your Teeth", he eats it
8:45 AM
so, since he eats candy consistently (he also execises like crazy too), he wants to get the best deal possible…
8:46 AM
he bought 100 *&^%+-$#!@*&^%! POUNDS of Boston Bake Bean PEANUTS
8:46 AM
100 pounds …
8:46 AM
so there are 5 pound bags of these peanuts in his room, in our cupboards, everywhere.
8:47 AM
i am not a candy person
8:47 AM
I am just not into it
8:47 AM
a cookie now and again, but candy…
8:48 AM
but as the saying goes, after fighting for so long and not being able to get someone to change that, "if you can't beat em, you might as well join em"
8:48 AM
I joined em during the growth of that 7 pounds (!) … ?!
8:49 AM
but when I started listening to the new audio, I automatically stopped eating those handfuls of BBB.
8:51 AM
I didn't realize it until I got on the scale this morning and was shocked at the number. So surprised I lost the weight. Because last night I decided I wanted to lose a few pounds. I think my body fat is shifting now that I am older. I never got it in the gut but now I am holding fat in the upper portions of my body more than the lower. Pushin 50 fun… 
###
You can see clearly how the Skype chat above is quite effective for supporting and sharing the weight drop victories in life with your buddies.
Remember, you can always choose to say NO (!) to Boston Baked Beans.
P.S. I haven't touched a Boston Baked Bean in 3 weeks – there are still about 95 pounds of them in my house.
I read about your sweet potato laeves turning yellow. Maybe it’s just the vine getting old. I know my parents will clear the sweet potato patch after sometime and start all over again when disease set in. If the problem persists, you might want to cut them down (leave the main stems alone) and let them grow new shoots.