A New Perspective on Losing Weight: Not to Look Good, But Instead to Care For Me
How many times have we looked in the mirror noticed all that we saw wrong with our bodies? Key word, we, because the truth is that we are beautiful. This was my story, for years.
If you are a Christian like me, you may know that God says we are wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14, the Amplified Version), marvelously breathtaking (Psalm 139:14, the Passion Translation), and God's masterpiece (Ephesians 2:10, the New Living Translation). Is this enough to convince us? It is what the one who created us says about us after all.
While this is enough to convince some of us, this may not convince us all. We experience cognitive dissonance: we do not always believe what God's word says despite knowing it is true. Then there are those of us who do not identify as Christians even though we experience cognitive dissonance as well: we know there is more to us than our weight and that others do not look at us and see our weight, others see us as a person. Yet, our weight is all we can focus on.
Whatever your thoughts are, if you have a goal to lose weight allow me to offer another goal that can come alongside and that can be a higher goal whereby losing weight becomes a byproduct: to care for yourself.
When we are eating healthy, ensuring we get the nutrients our bodies need we experience a better mood, better energy, and feel more rested.
When we are regularly engaging in some sort of exercise we also experience a better mood, better energy, and feel more rested.
Some things to note are that it takes about a week or 2 for your body to adjust and feel these benefits of eating healthy and exercising. The first week or 2 may be a time of your body adjusting and perhaps struggling to discipline yourself to eat healthy and exercise. You may feel more exhausted and lactic acid from exercise and you may not be sleeping as good as your body adjusts (a side affect of the first week or 2 of keto where you may experience the keto flu). But after a week or 2, your body will adjust and you will feel much better! Your goal of caring for yourself is paying off as you start to feel much better!
Then of course, you will start losing weight and you start to feel even better! In addition to physically feeling better with less weight to carry around you start to fit into your clothes better, you like what you see in the mirror, and you feel satisfaction to see the scale and measuring tape go down. The byproduct of the goal to care for yourself is paying off even more!
Then of course when you lose the weight your knees feel better, you feel lighter as you walk around, and you like much better what you see in the mirror.
So, pursue taking care of yourself without the negative thoughts of a poor self image and as you make progress enjoy the side affect of liking the way you look get better and better.
If I can be of assistance in helping you along your journey of caring for yourself and losing weight as a byproduct please do not hesitate to check out my website crystallfedelicoaching.com. Click the 'Book Online' tab if you would like to book a session or package with me. Please do not hesitate to ask us reach out if you have any questions via text/call 609-908-1757 or email crystalfedeli@crystallfedelicoaching.com. I can't help you create the life you wan to live!
