Here’s something that seriously bugs me – referring to how you eat by announcing, “I’ve been good today” or, “I was so bad today”.
Why does this bother me so much? Because you’re essentially labeling yourself as being either good or bad based on how you eat.
Well I don’t know about you, but I’m much more interested in loving myself as I am apart from how and what I eat and what the number says on the scale.
It’s getting into that labeling that can directly get you into a lot of trouble – if you start believing that you’re so bad because you weren’t “good” today in how you ate, how are you going to feel? Does that make you feel good? I’m going to say no, that kind of thinking is going to make you feel bad, guilty and wrong, and where is that going to lead? To overeating and emotional eating?
Love Yourself No Matter What
This can be one of the hardest things to do but once you master it you’re on your way to success in all areas of your life. I’m talking about setting aside how you behave, where you are in your life, how much you weigh, all of that stuff, and loving your essence, loving you just as you are.
This goes beyond the physical and even the mental and gets to yourself, your being, your spirit – loving yourself and accepting yourself as the spiritual being you are who is having a physical experience. Loving yourself just because you are here, just because you are you.
There are Many Paths to Successful Weight Loss
There are several paths you can start out on to achieve successful, lasting, weight loss, to achieve a balanced, healthy lifestyle that supports you and provides you with everything you need to live life at the optimum level. No matter which path you start with (physical, mental, spiritual or emotional), eventually they all intersect because you cannot separate them.
Love is the most powerful energy on Earth and if you decide to stay on top of your thoughts and your emotions and love yourself exactly as you are now no matter what you eat or how much you weigh, you will find that your motivation to care for yourself increases because your self-respect and self-esteem will increase the more you love yourself.
This path could mean that you’re not even starting with physical change (although what you eat influences your chemical makeup, which influences your emotions) and by loving and accepting yourself as you are now, you will move yourself in to a healthy lifestyle. This will be achieved through the power of love and if you haven’t experienced self-love before (not vanity but compassion, acceptance, and forgiveness), you’ll be greatly surprised at the changes you can manifest in your life.
Self-Love does Not Equal Self-Abuse
You can see that I’m not advocating “loving yourself and living in poor health” because if you really do love yourself, you will naturally want to care for yourself. Love does not equal abusing your body – that is not love. If you truly love someone you would never wish poor health and a low quality of life on them, living in a painful, overweight, unhealthy body. Of course you would want only the best for them, and that is what you want for yourself when you truly love yourself.
Start Loving Yourself Today
You can start loving yourself today no matter how healthy or unhealthy your current lifestyle is, what do you have to lose except some unloving feelings about yourself? I wrote a 31 day series on loving yourself thin and you can start there right now. If you love yourself just a little bit more each day, you’ll be amazed at where you will be 31 days from now.
The more you truly love yourself, the more you will respect yourself and treat yourself like you would treat someone you love with all your heart. And why shouldn’t you treat yourself the same way that you would treat a loved one? The more you do this for yourself, the less you will feel the need to look outside of yourself for love and validation and guess what is one of the things that is outside of yourself, something you may be using right now to make yourself feel better? That’s right – food.
Get started on loving yourself today and just see where you end up 31 days from now. There’s certainly no risk, you’re “only” loving yourself and dropping the labeling you’ve been giving yourself of being “good” or “bad” based on how you eat – doesn’t that should like a good thing? I think so!
I’m always great.
My eating habits might not be, but I am.
Excellent post, btw – it’s so important to love yourself…especially when you’re trying the best you can.
Enjoy, Barbara
“I’ve been good today” or, “I was so bad today”. That bugs me as well.
Such a good point “Start Loving Yourself Today”
Mark Salinass last blog post..Physio Ball Exercises
I agree 100%, everyone on 6WBM forum say I was POP which I assume is “Perfect On Plan” I think it should by DMBOP “Did My Best On Plan”. I want to stay on this for the long haul and yes, I went to dinner with friends and had wine, I dont want to miss life for this way of eating, I did so in moderation and was right back on plan..I feel so good that I didnt feel so guilty afterwards, everything was fine, was not a I messed up..so give up thing.
It occurred to me that is also is kind of infantilizing yourself.
This was an amazing read. I couldnt agree more, true that we should learn to love and respect ourselves. This is something most people forget to do.