“I’ll be happy when I lose 10 pounds”
“I can’t eat that, I’m dieting”
“One more lap to burn those calories”
“No pain, no gain”
“You have to suffer to be beautiful”
“Oh, this old thing”
Ever told yourself any of these things or something similar? Why is it we tell ourselves such negative things? Why is it so difficult to simply accept a compliment without minimizing it in some way?
Quite simply, we’ve allowed society’s value of superficial appearance to take a higher priority of what we should really value. Are you kind, loving, giving, hardworking, self reliant, honest? These are the most important characteristics of a human being. Does your outward appearance reflect the kind of person you are?
Do you act from love, not for show? Are you dressing to the nines and crushing it in the gym so that others compliment you?
What needs to change is our self acceptance. When we feel good about who we are it then becomes easier to take care of ourselves physically, emotionally, spiritually.
As humans, we are pleasure seeking individuals. We cannot put ourselves through pain long term to achieve a long term result. This means we can never gain self acceptance by depriving ourselves of the things we love and that make us feel good.
We can give up food and limit ourselves to a handful of choices that adds up to 500 calories a day for a short period of time (40 days) and at the end think that we have achieved something worth loving ourselves for. But if we don’t then commit to doing the things necessary to care for ourselves wholly at that time, the superficial result will erode over time.
The goal should never be weight loss. The goal should be to love yourself, and when you love yourself, you’ll do for yourself what you do for others you love.
Recent Comments