My husband has never been overweight and at times has been underweight. He's super supportive of my weight loss, and we don't really look at it as "my" problem.

Our long term plan is to grow old together. We have discussed where we both want to be in terms of health, ability to handle activity, finances, relationship, etc. We both are working together to get us there.

For me to have the health and activity capability I want, I need to be at a healthy body weight. Also, if I want to retire earlier than 55, I need to make sure my weight isn't a barrier to getting health insurance. Right now, I need to have the right kind of nutrition so we can enjoy outdoor activities on our land and so that I can be efficient at work. We both do everything we can to be supportive of each others current and potential health issues. For me, that's weight, getting the right amount of activity, sleep and stress management. For Pat, that involves not overdoing with physical labor on our land, getting good quality sleep, managing the things he wants to work on with what can actually be realistically done in a day and making sure his diet can fuel his activity.

My weight isn't something that becomes a negative focus in the family. We treat it like we treat wearing seat belts or being careful using a chain saw. He knows how to recognize physical signs if I have a reaction to hidden carbs and is a huge help. Since I'm on CALP, I have something carby as a reward with my evening meal. Lately that's been frozen cookie dough. I like that stuff so much I know I'd start slicing bigger slices, so his job after dinner is to serve up a sensible portion for me and slightly bigger one for him. Working together for my diet success really helps.

The things that make this really work is that we don't care a lot about my weight. We care about having the right behaviors and activities every day to help our family get to where we want it to be in the future. If having him slice the cookie dough wasn't enough to manage my temptation, we'd have it out of the house so fast you wouldn't believe it. Neither he nor I would be willing to do indulgent things today if it meant jeapordizing our future together. Undermining my food plan would be no different than encouraging him to use power tools unsafely. It just isn't in our family's best interest long term.