When I made the decision to change my life, and embarked on the path to healthiness, I knew that I would take some flack from dissenters, supporters and loved ones.

What I didn’t expect was to be told that I was wrong, or hurting myself, or going about losing weight all wrong.

You’ve got to understand, I’ve grown up with my first name being Jef – and no, you don’t see a typo in my name, it only has one “f”.

I have been asked on numerous occasions if I wanted to correct the spelling of my name. I’ve had my name corrected after I had written it. I even had someone argue with me that I didn’t know how to spell my name.

I think that one poor woman taking my application for the day was just looking for someone to argue with when I came up with my J-E-F spelled out in the name slot.

“Did you know you spelled your name wrong?” she asked.

“I did?” I asked as I pulled back the application to make sure I hadn’t leaked ink on it or something. “Nope, it’s correct.”

“No, it’s not,” she said. “Jeff is spelled with two ‘f’s. ”

I reaffirmed my position that the name was spelled right, and after being corrected one more time, I told her that it was my application, and if she didn’t like the way I spelled my name, it was too bad because that’s the way I spell it and had since I was able to write.

Luckily for me, it wasn’t a job application, and my resorting to being forceful in the words I chose didn’t have a negative outcome.

Anyway, I’ve been told that my method of weight loss is wrong. 

I recently saw my mom’s sister and her daughter, and they were impressed that I’d lost 43 pounds, until they heard what I was doing.

You see, I fast on occasion, and only eat when I’m hungry. When I eat, I reduce my portions and eat vegetables, meat and fruit.

I try to stay away from processed foods, and I haven’t had added sugar in two months. In fact, the only sugar I have consumed in that time is the fructose found in fruit.

I think it was the fasting thing that got her. She started talking about how this doctor said this, or that doctor said that, and you need to eat six small meals per day, yadda, yadda, yadda.

I stopped her before she got too worked up and explained that I believed that those options were good for her, and her doctors, but that my plan was working for me.

And she isn’t the only one. Almost everyone I tell, after congratulating me and asking how I’m doing it, usually tells me some variation of, “that’s not healthy.”

After I explain, most people accept that I’m not blindly following some nut job of a quack doctor. (It doesn’t mean they don’t think I’m a nut job of a quack though).

I mean, if my plan wasn’t working and I was gaining weight, it would be one thing. But I’ve lost 43 pounds since the middle of August. 

You can’t argue with success, and the one statement I took from my encounter with my aunt was, “time will tell.”

I’m listening to my body, and when I get hungry, I choose healthy options.

I appreciate all offerings of help, support, advice and praise, just don’t tell me that what I’m doing is wrong.

My name is spelled J-E-F.