From the outset, let me be clear that treating my body well isn’t about eating the “right” foods and being a good girl with what I put in my mouth.
We have made food a reward and exercise a punishment in our health obsessed, fat shaming culture and we regard both as the only two things that really matter when we determine if we are healthy or not.
It’s such bullshit. Health is the full circumference of how you live; mind, body spirit. It includes not just your physical make- up, but your mental, emotional and spiritual health, as well. It’s about so many nuanced and varied components that it's sort of laughable that how a body looks is what we’ve chosen to focus on as the main determinants of health.
The truth, for me, is that when I do things that are genuinely nourishing and I have my attention on what I need to feel healthy rather than what I’ve been told equates to health, I have an experience of genuine respect, care and love for myself and my body.
I like my body the most when I’m treating her well, because I like myself the most when I am doing things that I like.
How we feel about our body is merely a reflection of how we feel about ourselves on the inside.
You’ve likely seen the statistic that even after losing weight, women report still feeling critical, self conscious and insecure about themselves.
We think that weight loss is the ultimate confidence builder.
But it’s not.
No amount of changing the external will rewire the internal.
The other day, in the midst of watering the plants in my house, I felt such an upwelling of genuine harmony and enjoyment inside myself. No, it isn’t that watering plants brings me immense pleasure, it’s that I have had a solid few weeks of really taking quality care of myself. My energy has been consistently high, my body feels strong and my mind is settled, clear and happy. I felt genuine body love and self acceptance in that moment, content with myself, expansive and satisfied.
For each of us, that sweet spot of feeling well cared for (of our own doing) is different and it for sure took some trial and error over these many years of diet and food recovery to figure out what had me feel my most energetic, content, confident and powerful.
For me, getting to this sweet spot looks like:
Just choosing to eat, rather than ignoring my body until she’s screaming for food. This often results in home cooked meals, a well stocked* fridge and ingredients that I feel excited about. It’s deeply relaxing and recharging to just cook simple food for myself. (But it wasn’t always this way. Check this post out to read how it used to be).
Turning out the lights before midnight. Our body clock asks for us to go to sleep before midnight because the middle of the night is when so much internal repair happens in the body which translates into stronger immunity, more energy and waking up feeling rejuvenated. But often, I push myself to write one more thing, read one more page, clean the house just a little more before finally going to bed. It’s not an uplifting habit and I am drained and dragging the next day if I go to sleep later than midnight, sometimes even if I go to sleep later than 11.
Being in nature. This is often as simple as the 3 walks a day I take my dogs on. I’ve stopped listening to podcasts during these walks so I can put my attention on the trees and flowers and magic show that nature is putting on all around me. It gets me out of my incessant thoughts and plans and reminds me of the goodness that nature offers, inside of me and all around me.
Doing things that feel good in my body. Sometimes this means I go for a hike. Other times it’s a long bath (it’s actually a long bath A LOT OF THE TIME). Sometimes it’s 10 minutes of yoga. Other times it’s meditating, stretching, or just laying in bed not doing anything. Paying attention to what would feel good physically is one of the loudest inputs I have around my health and vitality.
There are a whole host of other simpler things I do- like take fish oil, drink lots of water, choose foods with fiber, say what’s true for me, listen to music, etc etc- but all those things are band aids if I’m not doing what I know to be the basics for my constitution.
There is no one size fits all roadmap to health and vitality, we each have unique constitutions that ask for slightly different and unique things. And you may have a totally different road map that gets you to your sweet spot of feeling in harmony and confidence with yourself and your body.
But my point is, seek your harmony, vitality, confidence and peace of mind. THAT is what builds true confidence and joy, not weight loss, not eating according to someone else’s recommendations. Listening to yourself, your body soul wisdom and honoring what works for you-THAT’S the ticket to treating yourself well and feeling good from the inside out.
If you’d like to build your own roadmap to increased vitality, energy and loving your body, book a Body Breakthrough Session with me here.
*a well stocked fridge could be a place where we look for a formula definition of what that means- that's more diet culture mentality at work. There is no one right way to eat. Well stocked means what works for me, what I love to eat and what I feel excited about pulling out of the fridge to put in my mouth. Do the good work to figure that out for yourself instead of listening to diet advice.