Honoring Your Body

Nov 11

As we’re getting closer to the holidays, I am reminded of all the amazing food that I look forward to. I am also reminded of how much I regret eating all that food come January. So today, I want chat about honoring our bodies.

We all have things about our physical appearance that we don’t like so much. I don’t mean the color of your hair or your height. Those are things that are part of your genetics, things that you are born with and there’s little you can do about it except color your hair or wear heels. What I’m talking about is actual appearance. Maybe you want a flatter stomach, arms that are fitter, or smaller thighs. Whatever it is, YOU need to create a plan and take steps towards it. And in the process, you need to love your body exactly as it is.

Something that I have felt for myself, and seen in the women that I work with is this: How we feel about our body has a huge impact on our daily lives.

You can have the “perfect” life and hit every mark, but you will never feel fully satisfied with your life until you are happy with your physical appearance and/or are taking steps to get there.

This doesn’t mean you need to lose weight or be ascertain size, if you don’t want to. What it does mean is that you need to love your body, which might mean you need to change something about it.

Your body carries you around 24/7, it presents you to the world. If you’re not happy with it, others will notice. You walk less confident, you wear clothes that try to hide that part you hate, you stay away from videos and photos, you give off an energy that says “I don’t want to be seen.”

I used to wear clothes that were two sizes bigger than my size to hide my belly fat. I used to sit in the back at live events so I don’t block people’s view and bring attention to myself because I thought I was too fat. I never raised my hand to volunteer for things because I didn’t want people to see my big thighs. These things stopped me from performing at my fullest potential.

So, here are four things you can do to create a simple plan in order to achieve the CHANGE you want to see.

Set a QUANTIFIABLE goal.
Saying you want to be fit doesn’t mean anything. What does fit mean to you? This should be a statement that if given to someone else to evaluate your progress, they would definitely be able to see if you have achieved it or not. For example, the statement, “I want to lose 5 pounds in 30 days” is something that I can quantify and check back in 30 days and be able to measure..
Set a REALISTIC goal.
I’m all for crazy and scary goals, but, don’t set yourself up for failure. If you are a single mom with three kids that need to be in school at 7:00 AM, don’t tell yourself that you are going to get up at 6:00 AM and work out. That doesn’t make sense and you will fail and disappoint yourself.
Get ACCOUNTABILITY.
Pick someone that you know will support you. Someone that you always go to with ideas and they are always on your team, always encouraging you. Let that person know your quantifiable goal and let them know that you will ask them to evaluate your results after you are done. Actually speaking your goal out loud and telling someone makes it real and gives you a sense of responsibility and accountability. You don’t want to let this person down because you know that he/she is always there for you.
Don’t COMPARE your goals and progress to that of others.
It’s good to take inspiration and look up to someone, but make sure you are doing so in the same category. You can’t expect to be like that bodybuilder who is 23 and single when you are in your mid-thirties and have five kids. This is going to discourage you and is counterproductive.

And most importantly, remember that you can love your body just as it is while to work on changing it.