How do I care about myself?

7^th November 2017

One day at a time.

It’s hard!  I’m struggling!  I’ve lost my mojo!  I saw a lot of comments like this one yesterday, I also saw just as many that said things like ‘I’m on it!’ ‘In the zone!’ & ‘back on plan’.  This proves the road to weight loss success is never straight, it’s full of twists and turns.   Wherever you are on that road right now, it’s okay, don’t worry, keep going and you’ll find you way back to success.

I had a very heartfelt message yesterday and without posting it in its entirety, they were asking “How do I care about myself?”

That is such a difficult question to answer when someone is in a bad place to start with as all the walls seem dark and there doesn’t appear to be a door out of that place.  It’s easy for me to say “It starts with self-acceptance, realising you’re good enough and deserve to be taken care of”, it’s not so easy to do that, I get that.

Sadly so many of us won’t love ourselves until we’re thinner, prettier or find that perfect partner - whatever it is you think will make your life better, it probably won’t. 

Taking care of yourself, start small, you’re probably not going to wake up tomorrow and think, “Yay, I like me, I’ve decided I do and I’m going to start saying no to everyone when I don’t have time, putting myself first all the time and looking after my health and wellbeing”.  I’d love it if you did but I know you probably won’t.

Okay starting small, what could that look like.  Eating well is always a good place to start, don’t think about weight loss, think about health, imagine you’re feeding a growing child and you want them to have energy to spend time playing with their friends, what sort of foods would you give them?  

An easy thing you can do is drink some water, hydrate yourself. 

It’s a bit like going on a long journey, if you have a car in good condition, you’re likely to get further.  If you get your body in better condition, everything is easier, including changing your mindset. 

Believe you can and you will (even if you have to fake those thoughts initially).

Be gentle with yourself and celebrate successes, they may be as little as getting to the end of the day and realising you have drunk a few glasses of water and eaten some fruit or that you’ve made it through a day without giving yourself a hard time.

If you have a setback, use positive self-talk, think what would you say to a friend or loved one who was struggling with life in general?

What is really important to remember is that taking care of you isn’t a quick fix that makes life rosy, it won’t and you will probably have setbacks.  I take care of me and I like myself a lot but the last few weeks, I’ve not been making my health and wellbeing a priority at all, it’s frustrating the hell out of me but I’m just letting it go at the end of every day and saying, I’ll try again tomorrow.

Take yesterday for instance, it started well, I had eggy crumpets for breakfast, then I was so crazy busy and had to be in Leominster for 4 that I sat and ate 3 crackers with some cheese on.  I had to stop for petrol and whilst in paying I checked out the food, I was going to have a sarnie and a bag of McCoys but instead I had a bag of French Fries, not ideal but a bit better, I could’ve eaten loads more crackers too.  Then once in Leominster where I met up with a fellow coach, we had lunch in Morrisons, I don’t know what went on there but I ordered chicken pie!  What the hell, I don’t even eat pies or pastry, let’s just say I didn’t leave any.  Does that make me a failure, should I be beating myself up over it?  Erm I don’t think so and I refuse to, what I will do is draw yet another line in my notepad of my life and have eggs for breakfast again this morning (mostly because there is nothing else in my house).  The other thing I am going to do is spend a bit of time putting a plan in place, get some food in my fridge that is healthy, use some of the chicken stuff in the freezer, might go and see if there’s anything I can throw in the slow cooker in a minute I think.

Today, take time to stop and think what it is you want from your life, what isn’t working, what needs changing, what can you do today, right now, to start you off in the right direction? 

I see people day in day out, it’s amazing when it suddenly clicks for them, I love to be witness to that – you could be that next person!  Will you be?  Yeah come on BeYOUtiful, you can do this, get your arms and wrap them around your shoulders and give yourself a hug, you’re amazing, you just need to realise quite how much, there’s no one else on earth quite like you and that is your magic. xx