Today I’m getting more personal than usual.
My history of perpetual dieting and binge-eating isn’t something I really love to talk about – partly due to scars, and partly due to embarrassment. Yet at the same time, it’s the reason why I do what I do … so I’ll continue to be an open book.
I used to have a deep hatred for my body and felt a lack of self-control and disgust for my behaviour, so I continued to abuse my body through dieting and restriction. I was never satisfied with the results, even if there was significant weight loss because I was still never “thin” enough, so I would always throw in the towel.
Binge-eating was my release from the pressure of perfection – guilt and disgust would quickly follow.
Maybe you know the feeling too. If so, I’m talking to you today.
This article is for all you beautiful souls who give so much to everyone else that you don’t take care of yourself. Your time and energy is spent on others, and you find yourself unhappy with yourself.
But the judgement and critiquing of your body has got to stop.
When I finally realized that my weight was a symptom of something else, and I was able to identify and change my relationship with food and my body, then I was able to release the obsession, bondage, and guilt, and just do me – and be okay with my body (the extra weight and all!).
Do people judge my body? All the time. Do I care anymore? Not one bit.
While you ponder that, here are 20 lessons I learned from my years of dieting:
1. Dieting perpetuates a hatred for the body
2. It easily becomes a lifelong roller-coaster ride if you don’t jump off
3. Self-confidence diminishes with every diet you do
4. Your relationship with food becomes skewed
5. The perspective of your body and weight becomes unhealthy
6. It’s hard to make a change without support so find someone who’s got your back
7. Weight is a symptom, work to figure out the root cause
8. Sometimes putting others first isn’t healthy
9. Accepting your body now is the easiest way to learn to care for it
10. It takes strength to break patterns, break molds, and break the obsession and you can do it
11. Change your perspective on your body, weight, and the purpose of food, it makes the biggest difference
12. Get rid of friends who don’t encourage you and build you up
13. Don’t let your weight affect your relationships
14. Dieting develops unhealthy habits with food
15. It won’t make you love your body more
16. Less weight doesn’t mean you’re healthier
17. Dieting doesn’t guarantee you’ll lose weight.
18. Your pant size doesn’t define you.
19. People will judge your body no matter what size you are.
20. You can’t care for a body you don’t love.
I seriously got tired of dieting and hating my body – so I stopped. Freedom from dieting changed my relationship with food and my body and allowed me to lose weight without obsessing over it, it was more of a natural process.
