Are You Battling Your Body Into Weight Loss?
Sadly, when it comes to our food and weight challenges, we relate to our body as the enemy. We view our bodies with contempt, judgment and a never ending problem to be solved.
How does this happen? As babies, we loved our bodies. We marveled at our reflection in a mirror, played with our toes and never worried if our diaper made our butt look too big.
Then as we got older we had experiences that conditioned us to feel dissatisfaction with our bodies.
The diet and “wellness” industry perpetuates this war with our bodies.
When will our society recognize that weight loss is not a proxy for health. In fact, it’s precisely our cultural obsession with weight loss that creates the biggest obstacle to the genuine pursuit of healthy living.
When you take the number on the scale out of the equation, you have a lot more energy to focus on your health behaviors and the underlying mental and emotional needs that really need your attention.
Battling our bodies is simply a non starter when it comes to achieving your health goals.
If the radio station in your head is tuned to “101.5 I hate my body” and your dialogue (internal or external) is shame and blame, you are creating the opposite physiological conditions for health.
Your nervous system reacts to these messages with some degree of fight or flight stress response. This de-regulates important hormones that impact metabolism, digestion, appetite, mood, sleep and immunity.
But when we relate to ourselves with kindness, we can feel safe and at home in our body and this creates a completely different biochemistry that supports healing, restoration and self regulation.
Being kind and loving to yourself doesn’t make us lazy and unwilling to change, either. Quite the contrary.
Self -acceptance is simply the realization that your body is not meant to look like anyone else.
Your body is a wise ally and will always give you signals when something isn’t quite right and when things are wonderful. Focusing on how you feel in your body is your #1 barometer for health. Let go of the scale and invest the time to listen to your body and develop a nourishing relationship.
Celebrate when you feel amazing and find understanding when you don’t feel great. Be patient and remind yourself that learning to honor your body is ultimately what has the biggest impact on your health.
Bottom line, how you think and feel about your body matters so much more than you’ve been led to believe.
