The dieting mindset – drop the weight fast through some restriction and then be fit, fabulous, and on your merry way – has to be about the single most destructive lie we’re selling ourselves in the modern era. Teaching self loathing and self hatred never did anyone a bit of real good, even if it motivated a temporary streak of self-flagellating zeal.

Helping one’s body with tender care and love, with an eye on things that REALLY matter and goals that are healthy for the body – that is what needs emphasizing to so many struggling people. The single biggest thing that has prevented me from seeing weight issues as ‘all or nothing’ is realizing that, like everything else in life, this is a progression. My health is a journey without an end – as long as I draw breath, I have chances to improve myself or worsen myself. No decision I am making with food and exercise cannot be undone, so I turn that around to give myself endless hope that, no matter how many times I stumble, I can ALWAYS get back up.
.-= Taryl´s last blog ..My immune system sucks lately. =-.

For me, a real change came when I looked at it as a “healthy living” journey rather than weight loss. I realized that my relationship with food and my weight influenced how I lived my life and how I was feeling every single day. I realized that I had to get it “right” for the right reasons. And these reasons were not weight or how I looked in clothes. Rather, it was all about how happy I was and how I interacted with the people in my life as a result of how I was feeling.

This has to be a LIFESTYLE CHANGE not just another diet for me. I have tried literally thousands of diets before and while I could lose weight, I would eventually fall off the wagon. I felt if I ate just a little of something or if I didn’t lose weight I was a complete and utter failure. I still fight this tendancy, but have promised myself and my family this time it’s different.

This time it’s not just another diet….this time it’s a total lifestyle change!

As you know, I had finally decided that I wasn’t meant to be thin and I would just learn to love myself the way I was – overweight and inactive. About six to nine months after deciding I’d learn to love myself was when I was motivated to try and lose weight one final time, because it hit me that loving myself was not letting myself get larger and larger and more unhealthy and I knew I had to do something.

Now I am also saddened when I hear people talking about giving up on their unhealthy weight situation. I feel like you, in the sense that I want to say, “Look at me. If I can do this, there is definitely hope for you!!!”
.-= Leah´s last blog ..One Step At A Time =-.