How many times in your life have you said the words...
"I need to go on a diet"?
If you are a woman reading this, then chances are you've probably thought this at least 5 times in your life if not more. How unfortunate.
Its unfortunate for two reasons.
#1 - You've repeatedly had these thoughts of needing to go on a diet but never took action, which has caused you to berate and judge yourself harshly every day.
#2 - You did in fact go on that diet but it was too difficult to maintain over time. Once again, you tolerate judging yourself over and over again.
Either way, you have left your body in the hands of your mind to be condemned. Oh how that mind can be so vicious!
So let me ask you... why did that diet not work for you? Well, there are over 100 different types of diets and you just didn't do the right one.. right? Nope!
I'd like to share a secret with you about diets. THEY DON'T WORK!
Eating just to lose weight... DOESN'T WORK EITHER!
What? Yep there it is! That's the secret all these diets don't want you to know.
Ok well maybe this isn't actually a secret anymore.
But I AM going to share a secret with you
that you probably actually don't know.
This secret may sting a little. This secret may cause you to crawl into the box of denial. This secret may cause your avoidance wall to rise up quickly!
Here it is.
Your weight and your inability to maintain the weight loss you've had in the past is all do to your EMOTIONS.
Is this a hard pill to swallow? It may be for some. It most definitely is easier to swallow the weight loss pill than it is the truth pill.
Gloria Steinem, a feminist and trailblazer for women's rights states: "The Truth Will Set You Free, But First It Will Piss You Off!"
Its okay if this post pisses you off. Whatever it takes for your mind to question if this is the truth or not. The simple most important question I have asked since I was a little girl is WHY?
I invite you to ask yourself why.
- Why has your diet not worked?
- Why did you gain the weight back?
- Why do you want to cheat on yourself, on your diet?
- Why does your mind consistently play devils' advocate?
Make a list of your why's. If you make time to spend with yourself exploring your why's, you'll find that it all comes down to your feelings and emotions. If you make the choice to get to the root of these feelings and emotions, you'll unintentionally and naturally begin to let go of your weight. This is a process, not an overnight experience.
The following are some reasons of why you may be carrying around weight in your physical body.
- You stuff your body with food as a sign of "stuffing emotions" from your past that you do not want to deal with
- You feel lonely and desire to be in a relationship (mostly the relationship with yourself)
- You're stressed out, angry or resentful
- You've felt rejection in your past, and now you reject yourself
- Something extremely painful happened to you and you use being overweight as a way to protect yourself
- You are unable to let go of a situation in your past, which is not permitting you to "let go" of your weight
- You are trying to fill a need in your life
Now of course there are other reasons for being unable to lose weight
or maintain weight loss from the past.
- toxins in the body (food choices from even the seemly healthy ones, pesticides, heavy metals)
- certain viruses
- hormone imbalance (which in certain instances is emotion related)
- endocrine system not functioning properly creating the cascade effect
But I must apologize when I say this next statement... Its NOT because you come from an overweight family, or a "big boned" family.
I've used that line in my own life before and that was just a lie I told myself and easy way out. I apologize because I know some of you (like me) are hiding behind this one, and I know how this truth hurts.
When you begin to focus on how you FEEL, and work on creating a life you feel good in emotionally, I promise you things will begin to change.
The way you look at yourself in the mirror, the love you feel in your heart for yourself, the way you respect your physical body as the temple your soul resides will replace the nagging negative judgmental mind that criticizes every inch of you.
Take at look at a previous blog post I wrote for some journaling questions around this very topic!