Your One Wild and Precious Life

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I have a question I often ask my clients that I believe is worth taking some time to reflect on…

What about your life would be different if you lost the weight?

I see so many people who have focused for so long on their desire for weight loss and the struggles endured in that process that they have lost sight of what deeper result they are actually seeking.

Is it really a new body they want or rather how they would feel and what they would do in that new body?

All too often I meet people hurting badly inside because they don’t look a certain way that they *think* they should look.   They think their life won’t change until they finally lose weight.

Sure, losing weight can be a great goal.  Especially when it means you are elevating the quality of your food and nourishing your body instead of depriving it.  But there’s more to think about.

Look beyond simply being thinner and ask yourself,  then what?

What do you expect will change in your life once you DO reach your desired weight?

Answers to this generally sound something like:

I’ll be happier and more self-confident,  able to do more things, start a relationship, feel more comfortable in my body…

Hmm, is that truly how it works?  Having the body you *think* you want guarantees none of these things.

Do you know anyone personally who does have what you would consider an ideal body?  How does their life look?

Chances are they too struggle with finding joy, relationships, self-confidence, etc.

Here’s another question:  Have you ever lost the weight and been at what you consider your goal weight?

Was your life really any better?  If you were happy with how your life was at that weight, why didn’t you/couldn’t you stay there?

What I find really interesting is that many of the end results you are waiting for and putting your life on hold for

….are actually things you could be having right now.

They’re choices!  You can choose to be happy now.

You can choose to feel confident in yourself now.

You can choose to do more of the things you love to do now.

You can choose to feel better about yourself now

What if you replaced your stressful thoughts about your body and weight with self-nurturing, loving thoughts?

Why not begin doing the things that make you happy and feel good about being you?  Get a massage or a manicure.  Go to a yoga class.  Treat yourself to a quiet morning walk on the beach.  See a movie.  Savor a glass of wine while watching the sun set. Buy yourself a new outfit. You fill in the blank; it could be anything.

Whatever you’ve been not doing that you see yourself doing once you lose weight… go do now. 

However you envision yourself feeling once you lose weight, choose to feel that way today.

 

 

5 replies
    • Corinne
      Corinne says:

      That is the ending to her poem The Summer Day where she writes about the grasshopper with her enormous and complicated eyes. 🙂 I love it….
      Maybe it’s not living creative lives that is so important but rather living as best we can to be our true selves, slowing down, keeping things simple, being kind and loving towards ourselves and others…. and like the poem says, pay attention, fall down into the grass, be idle and blessed and stroll through the fields.

      Reply
  1. Ann
    Ann says:

    I have reread this post on several occasions.
    It is a thought-provoking, challenging, yet earnest and kind
    encouragement. There is an urgency to the question posed,
    without any trace of panic. Choices are just choices.
    If there is a little “push” in the “what if” paragraph, I think
    there is real inspiration there.
    I think you are right about living as best we can to be our true selves.
    I am going to try to do what the poet urges: “pay attention.” 🙂

    Reply
  2. Sue Choquette
    Sue Choquette says:

    Great Article! Thank you for sharing. A great way to have clients reflect on what they really need to focus on and what is important!

    Reply

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