The best reason to lose weight

The Health goal tops most people’s list, I suspect. It did mine.

My knees ached and I puffed and panted up hills. I wanted to move without pain, with ease and more often.

My love of clothes and fashion was my second reason: I wanted to wear more than cover ups. Choosing a top that hid my rolls of fat had become a depressing shopping experience.

Had I chosen these goals before? Of course, I had.

They were same ones I had in place for the last 40 years.

In my twenties, it was more about my appearance. Nothing at that time ached and ill health or the possibility of it did not even occur to me. What i cared most about then was the number on the scale.

I had achieved these goals before… many times and it had not motivated me enough to keep the weight off.

Even with great goals that are just for us, not for our family, friends, or significant others, but just for ourselves, we still fail. Maybe the goal is the end product, maybe there is a deeper issue?

As I explored all my angst around dieting, it became clear:

I wanted to have a healthy relationship with my body and food.

This was the real goal, and it achieved the results I wanted.

If I could not accomplish that, the rest would never stick.

 When I started on my journey, I didn’t know what healthy looked like or how I would feel.

But I knew it was crucial to my success.

Being slim had never stopped the anxiety. I always believed I was just temporarily inhabiting a thin body and the fat me would return. It always did.

Being slim had not stopped the obsession with weight.

Being slim had not stopped the self-hatred.

Until I worked on these issues, my weight loss would not stay off.

Through exploration and self-examination, I discovered how to get it. The relationship with my body and food is much deeper than simply wanting to look good and feel better.

I have been there before…at a weight judged to healthy for me, but the angst and obsession played havoc with my nervous system.

Losing weight this time became an inside job and as I became stronger internally and faced my demons, my external image caught up.

A healthy relationship with food and my body looks like this:

1. I don’t have good or bad eating days.

2. I eat when I am hungry, and I can recognize the difference between physical and emotional hunger.

3. I am not obsessed with my body and my weight.

4. I don’t diet!

5. I don’t abuse my body with food or berate and shame myself around my body image and my relationship with food.

6. I have body autonomy, which means no one decided what my body should look like. I also give that my same right to everyone else.

7. I have freedom from dieting. Yes, I cannot repeat this enough!

Come with me as I show you what that freedom looks like and how it has impacted my life.

Are you ready to have a new relationship with your body and food?

You are so worth it.

Thanks for reading,

Christina