Self Love

Some People believe the myth that weight loss is purely physiological, meaning it only has to do with what you take into your body physically, how you move your body, and so on.

But what is missed is that the health of your mind is crucial to you not only losing weight and gaining muscle, but keeping it off. That’s because a large portion of weight loss has to do with the regulated and consistent levels of certain hormones in your body.

Without going into too much detail about hormones, hormones are like little signals which cue your body to do certain things. One hormone is called cortisol, and it’s related to stress response. When you are stressed, cortisol goes up, when you are relaxed, cortisol goes down.

One unfortunate reality is most people don’t like themselves, let alone love themselves. They use negative self-talk constantly by saying things like, “I’m not good enough, I’m too fat, I’m too skinny, I’m not lovable, no one likes me, I’m too much, I’m not enough, I’m too old, I’m too young, etc.”
But every time you complain about how you are instead of appreciating yourself, you literally create a hormone response in your body which is akin to you creating an inner war. This war is the unnecessary release of cortisol, and when your body is high on cortisol, it will tend to be higher on weight gain.

Instead of hating yourself or complaining about yourself, appreciating yourself is a powerful practice that will make it easier (and happier) to lose weight.

This can be as simple as saying things like “I love myself, I love myself, I love myself,” over and over. You can notice things about your personality you enjoy, or about things you’ve accomplished that you’re proud of, or parts of your body you love (or can try to focus on loving).
Ironically, the more you love your body, regardless of it’s current shape, the easier it will be to transform it to something better.

Mirror Exercise

Spend 1 min each day looking at yourself in the mirror and say, “I love me!" over and over and over.
The important thing is to look yourself in the eyes and say it continually. After one week of doing this in the morning and night (for only 1 min), you can start to notice things about your body that you love. “I love my arms, I love my biceps, I love my nose, I love my glutes, I love my stomach, I love my shoulders, I love my ears,” etc. This will put you into a state of appreciation and abundance, rather than scarcity and lack.

Now I know this may seem a little weird BUT you will notice the more self love you have, the better you feel in life. The old saying says “you can’t love anyone if you don’t love yourself” has a lot of merit. Focus on things you love about your body, mind, and life. Find the love within yourself. Focus on the things you love about the world around you. You will find the world becomes much more colorful and vibrant.