When I was ten years old, my mom sat me down on the side of my bed and gently talked to me about dieting. Truth was, I was chubby. And when I was ten, a chubby ten year old was not normal. So if you look at me now, you may not know that weight loss was a giant piece of my health puzzle. Now, with everything I know, the symptom of being overweight comes from our relationship to food.

Some of my clients have weight loss as the main health goal they are working on with me. Even though weight loss is not something that I have talked much about, working with them has shown me how my food and mood process includes weight as one of the health symptoms that my program addresses.

I see weight, over weight or under weight, as a health symptom. When our bodies are functioning well, when we are focusing on foods to nourish our body, when we are listening and honoring our bodies signals and cues… then our weight naturally sorts itself out.

I was recently talking to a fellow mom about her weight loss journey and we were agreeing on the importance of letting go of the restriction mentality and embracing the lifestyle mentality.

For years I did restrictive diets that seemed to work but then found myself re-gaining weight. It was not until I developed a long term relationship with how I wanted to feel for the rest of my life that I figured out the food lifestyle and habits that made my health and weight good as done.

I have been fifty pounds over weight twice. I know how uncomfortable it is to be in a bigger body; tight fitting clothes, chafing thighs, bloated, difficult to exercise, and so on.

Now, I love how my body feels AND I love the food that I eat especially because it is the food that makes me feel energized, pain free, and maintains my ideal weight.

Reaching and maintaining ideal weight is all about a healthy relationship with food. Part of that relationship includes the mindset shift in understanding that certain foods spike insulin and create over hunger and over desire which make us gain weight.

Another part of the necessary food relationship (for ideal weight) includes emotions. If you know me by now, you know that I love talking about emotions.

The first part of my health and weight journey, I was horrible to myself. I talked negatively to myself, I punished myself, I felt guilty and ashamed most of the time; I even remember baiting myself and telling myself that “when you get your thighs to be thin enough THEN someone will love you.”

I was wrong. What I needed was to love myself. First and foremost, love is something that we must choose to do for our wellbeing and health… before we actually change our weight.

Because when we love our self then we have the option of making loving choices which include eating nourishing foods.

When we hate ourself, or feel guilty or ashamed then it is practically a set up for emotional over-eating.

My Recipe For Long-Term Weight Success

Feel good first. Love ourselves. Then lovingly choose foods that are in our best interest. Stay present. Stay connected to myself. Notice and observe which foods affect me which way. And learn how to manage my mind and feel my emotions. Take the pressure off my digestive tract and my metabolism by choosing to face my emotions and stressors in life INSTEAD of using food to tolerate or numb my life.

This was and is my recipe for long-term weight success.

To take this work to the next level, sign up for a free consultation call with me using the coach with me button in the upper right part of this blog post. Food changes are simple and doable AND even enjoyable when we do them with love.