There is Nothing Wrong With You [seriously, we love you…you should too]

There is nothing wrong with your body. Today we are so focused on changing our bodies. But if you don’t like it, maybe it’s your mind you need to change first. Your mind is telling you “I’m overweight” and “I’m sluggish” but your body is just responding to the environment you’ve provided it with. If you’re getting upset with your body because it doesn’t respond to “what you’re trying” maybe it’s trying to tell you back, that this isn’t what it needs. Maybe what you need more time, more information, or just more self love.

Our bodies respond each day to the conditions we impose upon them. Sometimes it happens right away, like a stressful situation that abruptly happens to you and your hair stands up on end, or you get laser focus. Other responses become obvious to us at a later time like when we don’t drink enough water for a few days and we wake up with chapped lips. Those are responses that happen over time. Another response can be weight gain and that can mean a few things.

Sure maybe it’s simple and you take in too many calories and don’t burn enough. But sometimes it’s more complicated that that. It could be a hormone imbalance causing weight gain. It could also be a factor of having a liver backed up to the point that it’s not doing its function of fat burning in your body. In these cases it’s not a matter of just I want to lose weight anymore. Because just choosing why you’re unhappy with in your body doesn’t help you make the right changes to fix it.

I say this because a few days ago someone on social media was talking about a plethora of problems happening in their body and in the last line they said was “I’m just fat and I hate it and I need to lose weight.” It made me think, “will they just resort to anything to lose weight or will they step back and think that their weight gain might be a result of another problem going on and explore the environment they are putting their body in each day?”

First response to the post was “try the lemonade diet!” (*facepalm*).

Often times the go-to is eat way less, exercise more to any point that will help them lose a few pounds. But why is there always bounce back? Because you’re treating the wrong thing. Your shooting the messenger – your body. It’s trying to tell you with the weight gain, that something is happening that’s not in balance.

It’s not your body and the weight gain that’s wrong with you. You must look deeper. For some it is as easy as you got too sedentary and eat too many junk foods. But more often when you’re going on these diets, and struggling and still don’t see results, it could be something more.

So let’s take a break from treating our bodies, our rolls, our few extra pounds like the bad guy. And start treating them as the gentle messenger who’s trying to tell you something. And start treating it kindly, for being responsive and telling you something. Let’s love our body and say “yes, I hear you” and “I’ll give you more of what you need.” Change how you look at your body, how you feel about it, and let that be what helps you change to see the healthy, energized body you want.

You can stop blaming that one donut you had this week, or the workout where you didn’t sweat enough in. You can stop hating what you see in the mirror and wishing you looked like someone else. I’ll be bringing in some guests who are very in tune with reading the signs of the body and helping people find real health outside of extreme diet and exercise. I want to create blog posts around listening to your body, loving your body, and then helping you get the health you deserve.

Here are some first steps: 

1. Step off the scale for a few days and review how you feel. For a lot of us, the scale can trigger self hate and negative feels when we should be focusing on other things. This isn’t forever, it’s just for right now.

2. Set goals that are not “stop hating myself” or “don’t be fat” and set goals that help you love yourself. Some great goal setting help can be found here. 

3. Start by doing something every day that “loves your body back.” For some it’s a few minutes in the sunshine relaxing with a hot cup of tea, others its writing positive things down in a journal, and for some its just starting out with a healthy breakfast to take care of their body. It’s about showing yourself some love.