As a woman now devoted to non dieting as a lifestyle, I’ve learned that the times during which my life has gotten chaotic again and I begin to judge myself based on my appearance is earmarked by the chaos that I allow to pile up in my life.
I am gradually weaning myself of the need to be a compulsive perfectionist, which means that making mistakes and learning to just be okay with who I am is enough. I’ve tried to play the perfect card and it has made my life a living hell.
It’s kept me focused on all the things that I am not, and by doing that encouraged me to hide my light, avoid shining and becoming too much or letting myself out to play.
During those times of hiding, I find myself focused on the imperfections in my body, judging the size and shape of my face or wishing that my stomach were thinner or perpetually focusing on the size of my thighs. These things don’t really matter, because one day they’ll all turn to dust anyway. I want my legacy to be one of love. I want to give the same amount of love I’ve received by some and exceed the amount of some I’ve been denied by others. My dear friend and colleague, Tuck Self recently referred to me as a love muffin. That’s who I am. Only now I’ve just learned that it’s true.
In the days when I was so focused on counting calories and burning up points, trying to get all my waters in, loving myself and the world didn’t count for a damn. Now I get it. It really does, and because of that my whole life has changed.
Here’s a beautiful quote that I recently snagged from the movie, “Love Actually.” It touched me so deeply that when I heard it spoken by one of the actors in the film, Hugh Grant, I started to cry my famous truth tears. Here it is:
“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed but I don’t see that. Seems to me that love is everywhere, often it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there. Fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the twin towers as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people onboard were messages of hate or revenge. They were all messages of love. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling that love actually is all around.”
Let me know what you think about switching your goals of wanting to lose weight to committing to love yourself more. As you may know, this blog is a companion to my online free Juicy Woman Yahoo group. If you’re a gal, in need of support, wanting to love yourself more, accept your body now and reshape your body slowly and gently without ever, ever, ever dieting again, then come see what I can do for you! Come take my hand and let’s take the journey together.