Dear body...

9th July 2015

The distance between dreams and reality is called action!

Being healthy is a continuous, lifetime thing isn't it!  It's not something we can focus on for a fortnight or a few months, it's a forever thing isn't it!   And like everything else that's worth taking care of and loving in life, it isn't always easy.  Taking care of ourselves you would think would be our priority, the one thing we put first before anything else but strangely we don't.

Why don't we?  Do we think we're invincible so therefore don't need to look after our health?  It intrigues me, it really does, I know certain foods give me heartburn but it doesn't stop me eating them - what's that all about.

I know if I start eating a certain food, I'll not be able to stop so why the heck do I allow it into my house?

If I had the answer to all these questions, I'd be slim, healthy and possibly rich!  A member threw her 'dilemma' at me last night and ended it with "Tell me how do I get back to that?"  The truth is I don't know, I'm an expert in the plan but I'm not a shrink, although I feel like one most days ;)

I do know the more I write down my foods and my moods the better I get to know what's going on in my head and therefore the more likely I am to be able to change my behaviour.  I have also realised if I give myself a hard time over it all, I do even worse than I already am, so the hard love / self hate approach was dropped by myself a very long time. 

Writing this has just reminded me of a course I once did and one of the activities we had to do was write a letter to our body!  It's interesting, you should give it a go;

Start the letter “Dear Body,” this is an opportunity to write a letter to your body telling it whatever you want to. There is no right way to do this, just say whatever comes to mind.

Once you've written it,  reply using your non-dominant hand. If your left-handed this means using your right and vice versa – if she is right handed use her left.

Start the letter… “Dear X,”

WHY your non-dominant hand?  Apparently this engages a different part of your brain.

Once you've done this, read through the letters, what did it feel like writing those letters? Was there anything that surprised you about what you wrote?  How did you feel writing it? What was the tone of your letter to your body? And what was the tone of the reply?

Do it, write those letters when you have time, I found it really interesting, I realised back then and I'm talking a good few years ago now that I'd treated my body in a way I'd never treat another person, in reality I'd abused it with the over exercising I'd done at the same time as under eating!  I'd looked in the mirror and mentally abused it with dreadful thoughts and telling it that it wasn't good enough and that I wished it was different!

I don't do that anymore, I love this imperfect, perfect body I live in, I love how when I get out of bed in the morning, it's stiff and painful and it walks like Gollum, but then with time it loosens up and moves more freely and Gollum goes away! 

Writing this and remembering that letter has reminded me I need to really take care of this incredible body, so I need to stop overeating, I need to start thinking about what I'm eating and when, those foods that give me heartburn need not be in my house!

What do you need to do to take care of your incredible body BeYOUtiful?