The negative self-talk, body-shaming and just mean things I say to myself on replay in my head do not propel me toward the big, healthy, loving goals I’ve set for myself… if I allow myself to go down a path of negative self-talk, it perpetuates and can become a downward spiral of daily negative self-talk and beating myself up.
Then I heard someone say something along the lines of would you say whatever you are saying to yourself to a friend or loved one?
Oh. My. Goodness. No, I most certainly would not say those things to someone else.
Ok, point taken. If I wouldn’t say them to someone else, why in the world would I say them to myself?
Because of old habits, patterns, and otherwise not-knowingness.
Admittedly, before I was able to sign-up to get my butt back in the gym back in 2013, I had to hit my emotional negative-self talking, body-shaming, ultimate low point… I remember looking at myself in the mirror and feeling absolutely disgusted with how I looked.
I felt like shit.
I ate like shit.
I had conversations with myself about how physically gross I was and wondered why my husband was even remotely interested in being with me.
Blah. That was it!
In that moment, I decided it was time to take action and take control back over my life… my weight and my health.
And it started with the self-talk I was using. I changed “I’m fat and gross” to “I am making better choices” to “I have the gift of movement in my body and I want to nurture that.”
It took time. Recognizing it when it showed up was the first step. Then, I was able to slowly implement kinder things to say to myself.
As a result of my journey since 2013, taking control of my health, releasing 50 pounds from my body, using nature and self-care practices to take care of my body.
We’ve some great conversations around the topics of body shaming and negative self-talk in the encouragement group I host on Facebook. We support each other in our workouts, our goals and share tips and hacks for wellness. If you’d like to join us for support, encouragement and conversations like this one, I’d love for you to join us: https://www.facebook.com/groups/getpastfearoffitness/