Hello there and welcome to the Nutrition Diva podcast. I'm your host, Monica Reinagle.

Today, I have some advice for those who want to help their friends and their family eat healthier

and also some tips for those who are just starting out on the healthy eating journey.

I frequently get emails from readers

and listeners asking for advice on behalf of someone else who they care about. One young lady is

worried about her brother's horrible eating habits. How do I convince him to take better care of himself,

she wants to know? Or Alyssa, who wrote, there are some folks in my life

that think they're eating healthy and exercising well, but they're not. And it shows,

what are some good tips for those just starting out on the healthy eating journey? And how

might we present these tips to them? Another wrote for advice on how to help her husband, who needs to lose a lot of weight.

Really, what she wanted to know is how to get her husband to take my advice instead of listening to his mother,

who apparently is pushing some pretty extreme diet fads. And you know, that's not my style.

I want a friend to get professional help for weight loss and related health issues,

wrote a third person, do you offer private consultations? All of these folks have really good

intentions. They're motivated by a sincere concern and a desire to help. And it means a lot to me

that they place their trust in me. But you know what, I try not to give

advice to people that haven't sought my help themselves because the reality is there really isn't

much I or their loved ones can do to change someone who is not yet ready. In truth, even people who

say they're ready to change often aren't.

They'd like for things to be different, but they're not yet willing to do or to not do what it would

take to create a different result. And until they are ready, it really doesn't matter how much

information you make available or how many obstacles you remove

...