Weight loss does not a beautiful person make! She's already there x

21^st October 2011

The miracle is this: the more we share the more we have. Leonard Nemoy

Normally on a Friday I’ve got a nice lunch planned with me mate and maybe a run, today however I have an all day training session with Weight Watchers, so busy this morning getting everything done.  I do have a free day without plans tomorrow though for the first time in a long time, and apart from a trip to the vets I’m going to spend the day catching up on house stuff and I’m sadly looking forward to it!

Had a delicious lunch yesterday used one of those cook in the bag things, ‘Maggi, So Juicy’ the mixed herbs for chicken flavour, it was really simple and saved on the mess, I threw chicken fillets, carrot, leek and pepper in the bag and in 40 minutes I had lunch, served with a jacket potato, very nice indeed.

Tomorrow because I’m at home I’m going to cook from one of the Weight Watcher cook books, the cooking for two one I think it is, making a cod and chorizo dish because I bought some cod last week from the reduced counter in the Tesco garage, the recipe looks delicious.

I’m amazed at how many people don’t use a photo of themselves on their facebook profile, although I do realise why.  Let’s face it, many of us suffer from a poor body image and in my line of work I see it more than most. No matter how much we diet, buy lots of clothes or indulge in creams and potions—we still feel bad about the way we look.  Well how about we stop!

Think about it, our bodies are gifts. Why not indulge in some of the marvelous things we can do with our bodies—run, jump, skip, dance, leap, walk, swim, cartwheel (be careful with this one, I tried it last year and it took me a week to get over it!), sing…you name it. How much more fun it is to use our bodies, than it is to think about our bodies. How much more energizing it is to engage with our bodies, instead of draining away our life force with petty obsessing over the slope of our stomach, the size of our breasts, the shape of our arms, and…you get the picture.

Unfortunately, just getting out there and using our bodies is not the magic tablet. Why?—because too often we are “using it” for the wrong reasons. We’re working out just to be thin, thinner, thinnest.  If all the workout is about is looking good in that new dress, we will never be satisfied. If instead we bring an intention to be healthy, in body, mind and spirit, we are ripe for happiness. The bonus—we will feel better about our bodies.  I’ve always loved to walk and I remember a long time ago buying a book about walking (yeah there is such a thing – just in case you don’t know how too!) and it said if you’re thinking about how many calories you’re burning as you walk – you’ve missed the whole point of a walk in the countryside.  How true!

Have you listened to yourself go on, in a WW meeting maybe it’s okay as you’re all there for the same reason but when you’re out with your mates - Yawn. Boring. No one really wants to listen to you list your flaws. Think about it. Really, do you like to listen to other people criticise how they look? No. Not to mention that such talk just reinforces those negative neural pathways in our brains.

And stop talking about other women’s bodies!  Double yawn, but worse, not nice. I’m not saying we ought to be nice girls all the time—there’s a time and place for not-niceness, I’m talking about the golden rule. We don’t feel good about ourselves, when we think that other women are sizing us up. And why do you think other women are doing so? Because you’re doing it right back at them. End the talk. It doesn’t do anyone any good.

Start focusing on what you like about your body. As the song goes, “you’ve got to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative.” When you look in the mirror, practice looking at what pleases you and ignoring what doesn’t.  Also start to notice the beauty in others, every time you offer another woman a genuine, authentic compliment, that positive energy will flow back to you.

Throw away those women’s magazines, which propagate the thin ideal, and embed insidious messages of inadequacy in our minds. There’s too much else worth reading to waste time on what undermines our self-image.

I read a suggestion that you should restrict your intake of mirror time. It went on to say, of course, you want to make sure you don’t have your shirt on inside out, and that nothing’s showing that ought not to be—tags, bra straps, t-bars; but other than that, try not lingering. Instead of scrutinizing how flat your stomach looks, or studying the curve of your bottom in your jeans, walk away. You will discover the inverse relationship between time spent looking in the mirror and how comfortable you feel in your clothing and ultimately in your body. More mirror time, more picking at your clothing and feeling not quite right. Less mirror time and you might even find yourself forgetting to think about the fit of your clothes, or the shape of your body. How much more mind space then to think about the things that really matter.  I feel slightly different about this I think you shouldn’t reduce the time you spend looking in the mirror you should change the way you look at yourself, start seeing the beautiful, gorgeous you, I’m 21 pounds heavier now than I was at my lightest through weight loss yet when I look in the mirror now I feel beautiful, I never did when I was 9 stone, I was never satisfied back then, now I love me and other seems to love me too so I must be ok. 

Think about that for a moment, if you have friends and family that love you, you must be okay and I bet they think you’re gorgeous too.

Enjoy your day. xx