New Year - Same Awesome You

I’ve had an up and down relationship with the “New Year” and “Resolutions” throughout my life.  Sometimes the New Year is really exciting, an opportunity for growth, and change.  Sometimes the New Year is an extension of the previous year, and I’m just moving ahead.  Resolutions for many years in my 20’s were centered around my weight, and per the marketing and advertising I see, it seems like that’s what “everyone” makes resolutions around, and unfortunately it’s rarely focused on wellness or health, but on getting thin.  That ever elusive version of me that would be a better one.  The thin one people would magically be interested in and suddenly I’d have more friends, and more opportunities.

Weight bias is a very real thing.  And it breaks my heart for every patient and HSN Wellness Manager I speak with who feels like they need to change their outward appearance, before they can be enough, or alright.  Fortunately, that attitude is shifting and Body Acceptance is becoming a movement, but it’s slow work.  

I waited for a year to start this blog.  2023 was my most painful year since before I became gluten-free, and the very successful weight change I’d attained in 2022 hit the plateau of maintenance with slight regain, as often happens with intentional weight change in either direction.  What I have known for a long time, and really practiced in 2022 when my weight was really shifting, was Body Acceptance.  Love for myself, inside and out.  I learned, and have seen in my work, that if you don’t love yourself in a large body, it’s incredibly rare that you’ll actually, truly love yourself in a smaller body.  If you start with feeling not-good- enough, there’s-one-more-thing-I’ve-got-to-do-to-be-loveable, it’s unlikely that external physical change will alter this feeling.  It’s a horrible loop to be caught in.

Learning about Body Acceptance, loving myself in any size, working for my best health in any size, has been one of the most liberating self-care exercises I’ve undertaken (and I was a self-help junkie with a hyperfocus on ‘fixing’ me).  No longer fixing, or seeing what’s wrong, I practice gratitude, acceptance, and self-care instead.  Body Acceptance has helped me to stabilize my weight, and process my feelings along the way without guilt, shame, or judgment.  If you haven’t before, I encourage you to explore this idea, because my guess is, if you’re reading this, you are awesome already, just as you are.

Heart Spirit Nutrition Path Education Tip: Body Acceptance.

Place your hands on your heart and belly, clasped in your lap, or wherever is comfortable.  Take a deep breath.  Send loving gratitude to your body.  If this feels scarry, start with the part of your body you love the most, like your ear lobes, or feet.  Then say something like, “Hello feet.  Thank you for carrying me around.  Thank you for getting tired at the end of the day and letting me know it’s time to sit down.  Thank you for taking me from place to place.  You take care of me.  And I will continue to take care of you.  I love you, feet.”  Then, when ready, you can do this with a part of your body that you have a harder time accepting, for many people it’s their abdomen, also known as the stomach or tummy.  You may say, “Hello tummy.  I haven’t been very kind in the words I’ve said to you, or how I’ve treated you.  I am sorry about that and am learning a new way to interact with you.  You digest my food and through that give me energy to get around, think, and heal.  You are where my nutrition comes from, and for all you do, I thank you.  I will continue to take care of you.  I love you, tummy.”

After clearance from your Mental Health Counselor (MHC) or Therapist, when trying this if you find this practice challenging and too uncomfortable, stop.  As with everything, you need to move at your own pace.  Sometimes this practice brings up deep emotions and memories that it’s critical to work with your MHC on those thought patterns, and maybe reevaluate if this type of exercise is supportive for you at this time.

I wish you a loving start of an awesome new year, and the same awesome you.

Erix