Image: Making it about you, not them, is a good start
Years ago, a boyfriend of mine told me that he was worried about me.
He told me that I ate too much sugar. That I was going to end up with diabetes. That I needed to either change my eating habits or suffer the consequences, and I’d be suffering them soon.
It would be a serious understatement to say that I was pissed off with his little ‘intervention’. Firstly, we were on the last leg of a ridiculously tedious road trip, and I was already pretty damn cranky from spending a million hours in the car. Secondly, he was quite a shitty boyfriend and barely even spent any time with me during day-to-day life – so how was he supposed to know if I ate a lot of sugar?
Anyway, he was clearly an a-hole. But if you are legitimately worried about someone in your life, there are ways to tell them without being a total douche about it.
I spoke to health and wellness expert/PT, Kirsty Welsh, about what to do when you want someone in your life to be healthier – and she had five tips to share that might get them on the right track.
1. Ask yourself – “Do I really know what I’m talking about?”
In the great majority of situations, you have no place to judge how healthy someone else is - unless you can see everything that they're eating and doing.
"The only way you can make a comment about someone else is if you’re aware of their eating and nutrition and movement habits," Kirsty says. "If you’ve got no idea, you have no place to make a judgment. But when you’re close to someone, you should know what their health status is – if they’re high blood pressure, or have diabetes in the family, for example. That’s serious stuff and you can’t ignore it."