Loving myself when I was overweight was one of my biggest challenges

I mean, how could I possibly love myself when I hated what I saw in the mirror each day?

Ironically, it wasn’t until I decided to love myself anyway, regardless of my reflection, that everything started to change.

So if you’re looking for the magic bullet to ending diet drama once and for all, this is the very best place to start.

Check out my 6 Steps to Self Love and Weight Loss.

1. Mind Your Mind

What are you thinking about? Where are your thoughts taking you?

Don’t judge them, they’re not right or wrong, they’re just thoughts. Notice them, then reign them in.

Are they helping or hurting you?

How can you tell?

By how your feeling.

If you’re feeling down, sad, mad or depressed, it’s likely your thoughts have wondered off to “Boogie Wonderland” and taken your self-worth with them.

Once you become aware of this, you have a golden opportunity to replace them with thoughts that will be of service to you. Yup. You actually get to choose your thoughts!

Your mind is the most valuable piece of real estate you’ll ever own. Don’t rent it out to trashy tenants.

Next time you’re mind tries to rebel and feed you the ‘ol “you’re not the boss of me” spiel, you can say with complete confidence, “Actually, I AM” which leads me on to my second point…

2. I AM

I Am. These are arguably the two most powerful words in the English language. They hold the power of creation. They can take the invisible and turn it into reality.

The words “I am” create a statement of absolute truth.

Think about it… how many times a day do you catch yourself saying “I am fat/ugly/ stupid/ hopeless”?

What about seemingly innocent phrases such as “I am never going to get all this work done”, or “I am too lazy to go for a walk”.

Just as what we think is important, what we say may be even more so.

Use your words to create a reality you want to live in. One you will enjoy!

Sprinkle some fairy dust over those negative statements and replace them with statements like “I am able to do anything I set my mind to” or “I am loving experimenting with healthy foods” or (and here’s my personal fave) “I am happy, healthy and whole”.

3. Ask Questions

We’ve all heard of the movie “The Secret” (and if you haven’t, then seriously, go watch it now).

“The Secret” is all about the Law of Attraction. The Law of Attraction (or LOA for those in the know) is not just for those who believe in “woo woo”, it’s a proven scientific fact. Like attracts like. Simple. Why am I telling you this? Because we can use this tool to boost our Self Love!

Have you ever needed to accomplish something but didn’t know how to do it, then suddenly the right people, tools, circumstances just magically showed up? This is the Law of Attraction in motion, baby!

Our mind is on an eternal quest for answers. Ask it a question and it will give you an answer, albeit sometimes a ridiculous one, but an answer none the less.

If you ask your mind why you’re so unlovable, it will happily churn out a response such as “because you’re 15 pounds overweight” or, when it has nothing better to offer, “Because you’re a bad person”.

What if you started to ask yourself questions that demanded a positive response? Questions such as “why is it so easy for me to love myself and my body?” or “why do I find it so easy to enjoy delicious, nourishing food and still lose weight?”

Get the idea? Ask a certain question and you’ll get a certain answer.

When you ask yourself why enjoying healthy food is so easy for you, your brain immediately kicks into overdrive to find the answers for you. Suddenly you start to notice recipes or new foods that you had never noticed before and, just like a magical ending in a children’s Fairy tale, everything seamlessly to fall into place.

4. Quiet Time (except from Five Minute Fat Loss)

Some call it meditation, others call it prayer; I like to call it my five minutes of Quiet Time. This is when the iPhone, the iPad and the TV are turned off and I can spend five minutes in complete and total silence (aka bliss) mentally constructing the life of my dreams and feeling the sensations of living that life right now. How would your life look if you were thirty, forty or fifty pounds lighter? How would you feel? What would you be wearing? What would you eat, drink, think? These are all valid questions and until your mind has a crystal clear picture of what it’s supposed to be moving towards, it will simply hang out in the same places it has in the past.

I like to get my Quiet Time either last thing at night before bed or first thing in the morning before my mind becomes overloaded with the demands of the day. You could even squeeze it in between high powered corporate meetings or preschool child pickups. Heck, you can even do this one sitting in traffic. Just do it!

HOT TIP:

Keep Your Focus

Quiet Time is not a time to reflect on your problems. Watching negative re-runs of the day’s events in your mind only creates more stress which, FYI, leads to weight gain thanks to the hormone Cortisol. The aim of Quiet Time is to not only reduce stress levels, but to replace them with feelings of hope, optimism and joy. Eventually these feelings create behaviours which are followed by actions. Think it. See it. Believe it. Achieve it.

5. Switch It Up

What if you simply decided that the very thing you thought was a monumental disaster, was actually the opportunity of a lifetime?

What if you decided that your marriage falling apart gave you the opportunity to start life again on YOUR terms, YOUR way, with MORE self love?

What if you decided that the car breaking down during peak hour traffic gave you time to indulge in some self love practices instead of being a bad-ass inconvenience?

What if you decided that stubbing your toe on the coffee table was a loving reminder from the Universe to slow down instead of rushing through your life (and maybe, shift the coffee table)?

Who decides what a particular circumstance means, anyway? YOU DO!

When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.

Make an effort to consciously decide what particular circumstances mean to you. And don’t be fooled. Your greatest opportunities will often arrive disguised as your greatest disasters.

6. Be Grateful

It’s impossible to be grateful for something you hate, so if you’re looking for the quickest path to self love stardom, gratitude is the key.

No matter how much you dislike yourself or your body, you can always find something to be thankful for. Heck, if nothing more, gratitude will stop you from fixating on all the parts of your body that you don’t like so you can send some lovin’ the ones you do.

Don’t like your thighs? Then be grateful for your eyes.

Don’t like your eyes? Send some positive vibes to your fingers.

Don’t like any part of your body? Then start with something you don’t have to look at, like your heart. You can definitely be thankful for that.

It doesn’t matter where you start, it only matters that you start. Over time the entire practice will become easier, but it is a practice. Some days you nail it and others, not so much. It’s okay. To quote the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, “the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step”. Just start somewhere, beautiful; every little bit counts.

And if you’d like some support on your self love journey, then leave a comment below. Send me your questions, I’m here for you, gorgeous!