Quote Originally Posted by corktownyuppie View Post

...As she became successful at losing the weight and returning to better physical health, she found one of the biggest challenges to be "the frienemy". This isn't your enemy. It's your friend who only knows you as the "heavier you" and -- at some emotional level -- feels threatened your new life changes may affect your relationship with him/her. As you take on different habits...and perhaps feel less self-conscious to do things that were formally uncomfortable...your friend worries that you might leave him/her behind.

Obviously, it's purely emotional. Your friend surely wants you to succeed. But it can be emotionally jarring to see things/people/your environment change -- even when it's positive -- if you feel you have no control. This emotional jarring is exponential when the threat of being left behind is real....
Please pardon my thread-jacking, but corktownyuppie has very concisely described one of the difficulties that many young, bright children have to work through as they struggle to break the bonds of generational poverty: those who love them the most are afraid that they will be left behind if their child/sibling/friend makes it to the other side.