How to ask your family about encouraging me rather than putting me down.

This is my first post here, so I’m sorry if it breaks any rules.

Little backstory: In 2013, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. And in 2014, I started taking anti-psychotic medication, which made me gain a lot of weight. I’ve been skinny most of my life, weighing between 100-110 since I’ve been fully grown. Then after starting medication, I’ve gained a lot of weight over about 4 years. I was at my highest weight by 2018, weighing at about 240 lbs. In 2019, I was cut off from soda, which helped me lose about 40 pounds, and it felt great, even weighing about 200 and have been hovering around there since then. However, I’ve been miserable with how much weight I’ve gained. It’s directly affected my self-esteem, and it feels like it completely warped my personality, to the point where I don’t even recognize myself as being the same person.

Anyway, lately, I’ve been very motivated to lose weight. I’ve been exercising at least 3 days a week (trying for at least 4) and have been eating healthy (for the most part.) However, every time I talk to my mother or grandmother about me going down to my original size, they always say “you probably won’t go down to that size.” And my grandmother specifically always mentions I’ll probably hit a plateau. Lately this sends me spiraling into basically “What’s the point? They’re right. I’m always gonna be fat and miserable.” And I’m losing the motivation I’ve had for like a month. I love my family, but they’re not the best at encouraging me, which really hurts. I’ve made a lot of positive changes in my life within the last few months, but lately, I’ve been wondering if it’ll be worth it if I’m just going to stay the way I am. I know they’re just trying to be realistic, but it absolutely kills my motivation. And I’ve told them repeatedly that it’s possible I can return to where I was and that I know I might hit a plateau. They don’t even say I can do it. They only focus on the negative. My friends support the heck out of me and encourage me every time I’m feeling unmotivated. The root that it might stem from it is that both my mother and grandmother are heavy as well (obesity runs in the fam).

Is there any way to gently break it to them that it hurts me when they’re not encouraging me to do my best? I want their encouragement, not entirely withhold my achievements from them.

Thanks in advance.

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source https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/ml5qjj/how_to_ask_your_family_about_encouraging_me/