Love Yourself First… And Then Change Happens

Happy Valentine’s Day! 💗

Some say it’s a stupid holiday created by the devious floral🌹, candy🍫, jewelry💍 and greeting card💌 industries. 

Maybe they do take advantage, but I say if there is a day that has to do with 💖love💖 and chocolate🍫, I can’t help but be all for it.

Have you ever thought about how 💕LOVE💕 relates to our 🍴eating habits🍴? 

Self-love, to be more precise. 

🤗 Often I hear: “When I eat better and lose weight, then I’ll be able to love myself.” But that’s not how it works at all.

Instead of working only on changing your outside, you need to also tend to what is going on inside.  The attitude you decide to take (yes, it is a choice) towards yourself will hugely impact your eating behaviors.

Choose to love yourself. For who you are, not what your body looks like. You are in 100% control of calling a truce on your internal battle and just deciding to do it. Realize this is who you are going to be for the rest of your life! You can either accept, appreciate and work on loving who you are or be miserable because of your self-chosen self-hatred. 🤷‍♀️

When we love who we are, doing positive things for ourselves comes more naturally.

When we don’t feel so great inside, we have a tougher time taking the actions we know will nurture and support our health.

If you notice you’re talking to yourself in a way you’d never talk to your child, friend, parent, etc., let that be a wake-up call that you have some work to do!

Start questioning your thoughts if they aren’t loving, hopeful and good. 

Begin experimenting with encouraging messages to yourself to replace your destructive thoughts.  Reprogram your beliefs to change your behaviors.  Catch yourself criticizing your body and immediately say something kind.  Really.  I know it sounds goofy😜, but do it and see what you notice.  It will be life changing.🌟

When you don’t love yourself and don’t believe in yourself, it’s going to be a lot harder to eat well.  Why would you bother to take good care of someone you think of as a useless, fat failure? 😔

Often, this self-talk has been going on for so long and is so automatic that you may not even realize you are doing it. 

Start paying attention to your thoughts.  If you have been talking to yourself this way for years and are not able to lose weight or eat the way you want to eat… could your lack of self-love be influencing your behaviors? 💡

👀 I have noticed an interesting commonality in the people who succeed in achieving behavior change:  They are patient, kind, gentle and loving with themselves. 🥰 They are able to connect with who they are and eat in accordance with that person that they want to be.  💞 They trust themselves, value themselves and make time to do things that nourish their souls (this is not selfish; it is crucial!).  This attitude and practice of self-care leads to a new perspective on food and eating habits.

Practicing self-love doesn’t mean eating only salad 🥗with wild salmon 🐟 and sprouts 🌿.  It doesn’t mean you don’t ever eat something with low nutritive value 🥨🍦🍰🍸🍟🧁😋. Know that you can still choose to eat things like Valentine’s Day chocolates or your mom’s homemade pizza if those things make you happy. 

The difference being who you are as an eater. Stuffing food down in a frenzy because you think you don’t deserve to enjoy it and then feeling guilty and hating yourself after is not helpful.  Slow down, pay attention and eat with awareness.

Loving yourself allows you to give yourself permission to savor all food in a mindful way.  Loving yourself helps you strive for that balance of wholesome, nutritious and delicious foods that your body needs to feel its best.  You’re better equipped to make healthy eating choices when you remember that you’re on a journey and you accept and love who you are at this moment in time.

If you’ve been struggling with unwanted eating behaviors and feeling stuck unable to make changes, be careful how you talk to yourself (because you are listening.) 

You’re not going to get where you want to go with self-judgment and self-attack.

Acceptance, trust, kindness, gratitude, hope, respect, confidence– this is how you’ll get there.

Let go of your urgency and desperation to change yourself… in order to change yourself.  

Practice loving yourself now, as you are… and then notice change happens.  💗