Support From Others Creates Miracles

Inner Beauty

‘Remember that beauty works from within, it cannot be put on and off like a garment.’ Elizabeth Cady Stanton

The Elizabeth Cady Stanton quote above illustrates that it is more important to be true to yourself instead of worrying about outside appearances.

I would like to share a story with you. Susan (name changed) was overweight, decided she would stop focusing on her weight and buy expense clothes and makeup to make herself feel better. Buying the clothes and new make-up, it did the trick for a short period of time. Then Susan was back to her old way of thinking, “I must lose this weight before I can be happy.”

What the underlining message was that Susan did not like herself and was looking for something to make her happy and feel comfortable. As illustrated in the quote above until we find a way to, “Remember that beauty works from within” we will always look for the outside magic fix to make us feel better.

One day Susan was talking to a friend about her challenge and how she felt. Together they took the following steps during their morning walks and a miracle happened they started to lose weight.

1 Planned their own healthy eating plan before meeting for the walk.
2. Shared their plan with each other.
3. Discussed the challenges they were facing regarding their eating plans.
4. Brainstormed different tools they could use to ensure they would remain committed to their new lifestyle.
5. Promised each other they would follow their eating plan, no matter what happened during the day.
6. Shared for the last five minutes their successes and what made them happy the day before.
7. Each Saturday after their walk they would treat themselves and have breakfast at a local restaurant.

This routine went on for many months and what happened they both felt supported, liked the person they were inside and out and started losing weight.

What could you do today that will help you start liking yourself from within?

Remember I am here to support you in your journey. Please let me know about your challenges, stories and concerns. This is a community where we can support each other on our life’s journey. I can be reached by leaving your comments on this blog or send me an email at helen@loveyourselfcoaching.net. I really am looking forward to hearing from you.

FOOD IS DOING PUSH-UPS IN THE CORNER

Last Saturday morning, I was thinking about my day and realized we were going to a wedding that night. Dreadful thoughts over took me as I started thinking about all the food and having to watch everyone eat.

I have been in recovery from my compulsive overeating for over eight years. Every time I am invited to a party, I always start worrying about how I am going to handle the food. Usually as the day progressed I become more anxious and my fears turned to anger. I start to control everyone, telling them what to do and if they didn’t listen I would get angrier.

This time I decided this day would be different and I was not letting my fear of the food ruin my day. That morning my husband and I took a walk, as we were walking I told him how I felt. While I was walking the dreaded feeling started to disappear. By the time we returned from our walk I felt much better. As it turned out I had a pretty relaxing day.

My husband and I went to the wedding enjoying each other’s company instead of arguing. After the ceremony, my fears came true; we entered a room where there was enough food to feed more than 500 people. I left my husband and started to walk around the room looking for something I could eat. While walking around I started to talk to friends, family members and before I knew it they were calling us into dinner.

Once at the table, I felt much better because I could eat, dance and enjoy seeing my niece and her new husband enjoy their wedding. I ate what was on my food plan and felt fulfilled, powerful and grateful that my food monster did not take control of my day.

Some of the tools I use to ensure my food monster does not have power over my recovery:

• Acknowledge my feelings and talk to someone about them.
• Decide what I am going to eat ahead of time.
• If I want to eat something not on my plan, STOP, ask myself is this the choice I want to make and then take the appropriate action.
• ACKNOWLEDGE MYSELF!

What feelings do you have when you go to a party?