My Eight Truths About Weight Loss
If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. – Wayne Dyer
It’s been a long while since I’ve written. Truthfully, I’ve found myself in somewhat of an incubation mode, taking stock of where I am personally and professionally as I get ready to launch a brand new venture in the coming Fall season. This new endeavor is a partnership with a dear trusted friend and colleague, whose path I’m grateful to have crossed, to help me expand my vision of how to be of greater service in the work that I do.
The creative process I have immersed myself in has been an extremely invigorating and clarifying process for me. What follows in this post are Eight Personal Truths that have helped to form the foundation of the work that I do as a Holistic Nutrition Coach. In the upcoming 8 weeks, I will share a weekly post on each of these 8 Truths in the hope that they provide you with new inspiration in your wellness journey.
Looking back on my life, I came to understand that even before adolescence, I was fighting an incessant internal battle with my body and food. I remember judging and obsessing about wearing “skinny jeans” (remember Jordache Jeans?) even before that was a thing. And then there were the countless times I’d walk by a mirror or see a reflection of myself in a store window routinely body-checking myself – essentially scanning myself for evidence of my flaws and what I hated about my body. Sadly, I knew about “thigh-gaps” way before that was a thing.
For decades, I was trapped in this cycle of guilt and body loathing, I turned to diets and punishing exercise to “make up” for my lifestyle. I would swing guiltily from all-or-nothing extremes of eating and exercise. And through it all, I would oscillate between feelings of inadequacy, vainglory, comparison and righteousness.
At the root of this quiet inner war, was a belief that my worth as a human being was based on my ability to conform to a specific physical “ideal”. Perfectionism and the need to feel in control ruled in this and most other aspects of my life.
However, today my life and my relationship with food and my body look completely different. I have stopped fighting food and in turn I have stopped fighting myself. I love myself as I am, and honor and trust my body as my partner.
I’ve left behind the world of deprivation diets, fearing food and punishing exercise. I passionately embrace food and all its pleasures as my ally in health.
The beautiful gift from this journey is that I am doing what I was born to do in the world. Yes I’m a nutritionist, but I also know that everything we take into our lives (not just on our plates) is nourishment. I am a health coach who guides women who have lost sight of the things in life that truly feed us.
So how did this personal transformation happen?
I realized that I needed to find a better way to take care of myself to meet the demands of my life. I began to untangle from the longstanding cyclic love/hate relationship I had with my body, and I decided to try just love.
I remember the moment I forced myself take a good look in the mirror with 50lbs of post pregnancy weight, accepted it – and shifted my focus away from shame and blame to getting healthy and feeling well.
I began to truly listen to my body and learned that she knows exactly what she needs and when. By getting quiet and turning my attention inward, I began to trust my body and with that trust, came ease and flow.
In turn, my life became more manageable; I was more content and happy not just around food and weight, but around life.
Over the next few years, my journey to coach hundreds of women with food related health challenges led me to the deeper soul work needed to restore true health and well-being beyond the physical body.
Sure, being knowledable in the science and physiology of our food related health isues is super important and I’d be lying if I didn’t own that I love geeking out with you all about Leaky Gut and Adrenal Fatigue.
Nonetheless, along the way, I discovered the work of enlightened souls like Marc David, Louise Hay, Geneen Roth and Lissa Rankin among others, inviting me to precious moments of self-reflection and deep learning. After much trial and error applying their wisdom to both my personal and professional endeavors, I have found a new sense of inner peace and freedom.
For me and for so many of my clients, especially those who have tried practically everything to lose weight or heal a chronic challenge, this soul centered approach has been the missing piece in the equation.
I am excited to introduce my Eight Personal Truths About Food and Weight and hope they serve to enrich your health journey and help you see your challenges in a whole new light.
#1 Our Food and Weight Challenges Can Be Our Greatest Teacher
Food related health challenges are a doorway to self-discovery. The moment you shift out of “why me” victim mode and instead “what am I here to learn?” you reclaim your personal power and get on the path to real change. What if we viewed our unwanted habits around food as not the enemy but actually opportunities to heal what really needs healing. They can offer a host of life changing lessons about patience, trust, self-care and humility. I often say that the excess weight is not the problem but rather the symptom of a greater imbalance in our life. Our obsession with dieting and controlling our weight often masks our struggles around deeper issues like worthiness, control and self-love. Sure, having a healthy body is absolutely a laudable goal, but constantly worrying about our weight distracts us from who we really are and exploring the more important places in our life that need our love and attention.
#2 We Are Our Own Most Powerful Healer
When we learn to slow down and stop the busyness of our racing minds we tap into an inner guidance system — we reconnect with our body’s self-healing power. There is an abundance of scientific research that shows that the power of positive belief is an essential ingredient in creating health. We have to shift out of learned helplessness and overreliance on external fixes. Bottom line – no one knows your body better than you. It’s all about your vantage point – when you stop the obsessive problem solving, researching and trust that you will be okay no matter what, you are free to see a bigger picture, you begin to live in possibility. From here, you can relax into the process, take empowered action and when this happens, that which you seek more easily finds you.
#3 Your Body is Your Partner for Creating the Health You Desire
She houses a vast intelligence and wants to be healthy. When we constantly blame, criticize and manipulate our body, all the while failing to really listen to all the messages, of course something inside her rebels. When we treat our weight and health challenges like some moral failing, a battle, or the enemy, we create the opposite conditions in her essential for healing and transformation. Afterall, isn’t it a whole lot easier to care for something that you love?
#4 Our Mind Impacts Our Metabolism
Our lifestyle choices impact our physiology. We are body, mind and soul, therefore the solutions we seek exist in any and all these realms. The body is equipped with amazing self-repairing abilities, but when we live in chronic stress survival mode we inhibit its powers. When our mind is optimally healthy, the body can follow.
#5 Achieving Our Health and Weight Goals Does Not Bring Happiness
You’ve got to be happy first, then anything is possible. When we prioritize our divine right to pleasure, joy and personal fulfillment, our food and weight challenges can truly heal. Weight loss can have tremendous physical health benefits but in itself is no magic bullet for all our mental and physical woes. True happiness comes from living and breathing the truth of who you are and embracing all of you at every moment. We get it backwards a lot of the time. Our happiness is an inside job – it’s inside you.
#6 Changing our External World Only Happens When We Change from Within
The body is a reflection of our internal world – what we believe, what we value. Positive sustainable change happens when we take an inward focus on our habits and behavior patterns. Who we are, how we are, and what we have is a manifestation of all the choices (conscious and conscious) in our life’s experience. Nonetheless, it’s not about living in regret, blame and shame. Because when we simply accept that we are responsible for our lives, we awaken to the truth that we have the power to change our lives.
#7 Conscious Self-Awareness is the Pathway to Creating What We Desire
When you shift to the role of a curious observer of your life you can reconnect to what you truly need to feel good. It’s here that you have the clarity of thought to make the best choices for where you want to go in your journey. Understanding why we do what we do is the first step in making lasting positive changes. When you embrace health and healing as a journey in self-knowledge, there is no failure, just more chances to learn and evolve.
#8 All Healing Begins with Self-Compassion and Forgiveness
We must first own where we are and accept ourselves unconditionally before we can realize the change we desire. Judgment and self-criticism can literally and figuratively make us sick and weigh us down. It turns out it’s not about having crazy willpower and self-control – sustainable long-term weight loss requires a solid foundation of self-love and self respect.
I hope this has been helpful to you.
And now I’d love to hear from you. If you want to explore this integrative approach together for your health and weigh loss goals, feel free to contact me by email or visit my website at www.yourdeliciousbalance.com. and schedule an initial 90 Minute Discovery Session.
**Stay tuned for the upcoming weekly email posts that will dive deeper into each of these 8 guiding lights.
To your health and happiness!
