I know this might come across as cheesy, but sustainable weight loss really begins with love.
Last night, I was thinking about all the things I want to share with my clients – the benefits of no sugar, no flour, intermittent fasting, rebalancing insulin levels, creating a protocol and planning meals, creating a new mindset and understanding thought work and self-coaching, learning how to experience all emotions, creating healthy habits, and taking beautiful care of oneself. All. The. Things.
As I was thinking about these things, it quietly dawned on me. It all begins with love. Heaps and heaps of love.
You can know all about nutrition and the benefits of eating whole, natural foods.
You can know about the detrimental effects of sugar and flour, and processed foods in general, upon our health.
You can understand the necessity and power of creating our own food protocol and eating plans, and following through on them.
You can recognize that you lack wholehearted belief in your ability to create the life you want, and work toward changing it.
~You can learn how to recognize and allow any emotion, rather than resist it, as well as learn how to choose emotions on purpose.
~You can realize that your habits don’t support the way you want to live.
~You can truly desire to take beautiful care of yourself in all ways – physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally, and have a basic understanding of how to do so.
But none of it means much if you act from a place of desperation or of self-loathing. None of it will work. You cannot punish your way to health. You cannot create a better life for yourself while beating the crap out of yourself.
It just won’t work.
By the way, this is why dieting doesn’t work. We go on diets to make excess weight go away because we cannot wait to get away from our current selves.
All of us create results in alignment with our thinking. If we think negatively about ourselves, we create negative, or undesirable results.
It must all begin with a modicum of love. Where there is love, worthiness and respect are also present.
Acceptance and Willingness
When you love yourself, here are some of the things that you will put into place:
First, you will accept yourself as is. You accept your current reality. You won’t deny it. You won’t run from and escape it.
This absolutely doesn’t mean that you like your current reality. If you are obsessing about food, overeating and binging, and are at a weight that you don’t like, then yes, by all means, set out to change all of it.
Change because you care about yourself.
Change to challenge yourself to be the best version of you.
Decide what you want to achieve, then set out to do so. One small step at a time.
Second, you will be willing to do things differently, to try new things, to let go of what doesn’t serve you.
You will be willing to create a food protocol, plan and prep your meals.
You will be willing to examine your thoughts and begin to understand how they are shaping your life.
You will be willing to pick yourself back up when you fall, without judgment and reproach.
You will be willing to take care of yourself in ways you never have before.
You will be willing to cultivate healthier habits.
You will be willing to feel feelings that you’ve run away from in the past.
All of this will take intention, time, commitment, and effort.
It won’t happen overnight. Not at all.
And it won’t matter how long it takes.
Because you will feel so flipping good about yourself for showing up over and over again, even when you’re having a bad day and think it’s all a waste of time. Because you will know that it’s most certainly the best way to spend your time.
Time spent on becoming the best possible version of yourself will always be time well spent.
When you keep showing up for yourself, you’re reminding yourself that you are worthy and lovable.