How many different diets have you tried?
Many of you know what it is like to work very hard on a diet, deprive yourself, lose weight, feel great and be noticed, just to realize what you did was not sustainable. Within a very short period, the weight comes back and usually finds a little extra to bring with it.
In addition to the ups and downs physically, there is an enormous emotional component. Many people feel half human if they have a weight problem. The same people often feel good but rarely satisfied with weight loss.
For someone like me, weight issues have constantly been simmering on the back burner of my life. Not only have I been subjecting my body to extreme ups and downs, deprivation and binges, but the emotional component has been far-reaching and destructive. I have modeled poor self-care to my children. I have to bring this madness to a stop once and for all.
By working my S~E~E~P ™ model for personal balance, I have become increasingly aware of my need to pour some serious attention into myself physically.
I have worked hard on myself Spiritually, Environmentally, and Emotionally, but the truth is my lifelong eating disorder needed confronting like any addiction or codependency.
While I regularly eat healthily and exercise, I have been very abusive to myself emotionally, never being satisfied with all the assets God has blessed me with, but rather accepting the self-loathing that comes with trying to attain a perfect form in a human body.
About two years ago I began a book that will release next year, called Soul Work for Body Image. I will share very real but dark thoughts that many others and I have had around food. The book is the beginning of my journey towards wellness. The ups and downs of life that I experienced after the book began have made it necessary for it to drag out until now.
Recently I committed to a week-long mindfulness, weight loss/exercise program called Green Mountain at Fox Run in Ludlow, Vermont. I gained lifelong tools and understanding that have taken me deeper into the science, physiology, psychology, and lifestyle adjustments around eating, exercising and well-being.
One of the main changes for me has been a change starting from within, around the idea of eating mindfully and self-care. When I am mindful about what, when and how I eat, I am aware of what my body is asking for, and I provide it. When I am attempting to care for myself rather than just create a look that others will approve of, I have a completely different approach that will have lifelong effects.
Since I have returned from my retreat, I have begun developing a relationship with my body and what it needs as opposed to the years that I have spent hating what I don’t like. My body has been so good to me and enabled me to do so much, but I sadly have been abusive to it, and I a declaring freedom from the old and a pathway to the new.
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