Your weight is NOT an indicator of your self-worth
This week I wanted to talk about how your weight isn’t an indicator of your self-worth.
Watch the video I made about this below or keep scrolling to read more.
I think this is a really important thing to talk about if you’re trying to lose weight. This is something that you need to have a think about before you do anything. Also I want to share a few tips to help you feel better about yourself, that will help you way more than going on the latest faddy diet.
Your weight is a number and nothing more.
Your weight is not an indicator of your self-worth (have I said that enough times yet?!). Let’s just get clear on this; your weight is just a number. The number on the scales or on your dress size label is just a number. It doesn’t mean anything about you as a person; it doesn’t mean anything about your status or anything like that. The meaning we attach to that number is something we’ve learnt from society when it doesn’t actually mean anything.
Losing weight isn’t going to suddenly make you a better or different person. When you get to your target weight (if that’s what you’re aiming for) you will still be you. You need to be ok with you now. We all have insecurities; things that we see as weaknesses, things we don’t like about ourselves. That just makes you human; we have strengths AND weaknesses. We all have good parts and bad parts, and it’s all subjective. It all comes back to the beliefs that we have in our head about ourselves; the stories we tell ourselves and what we’ve learnt as we’ve grown up.
Losing weight isn’t going to take those insecurities away
Getting to your target weight won’t take away all of your weaknesses. Dieting certainly isn’t going to help with any of this. In fact I would say it’s more likely that going on another diet is just going to make it worse.
Even if you decide to follow my advice about building healthy habits instead of going on a diet – stop for a sec. Before you do anything, have a think about how you look at that number on the scales. Have a think about how you view yourself and check out my tips to feel better about yourself first.
Here’s a few things that I think will help you to feel better way more than going on the latest diet!
3 Tips to feel better about yourself
1 – Practice self-acceptance
You might think ‘loving’ yourself is just too much. It can seem too big a thing to try and do, so just try accepting yourself first. It’s a little easier, like the first step towards loving yourself. Accept who you are right now. You could say to yourself “I’m good enough as I am right now” or “I’m enough, I accept myself however I am right now”.
Start with acceptance and take it from there.
2 – Notice & challenge the judgemental self-talk
Notice when you’re saying horrible things to yourself. Notice when you’re telling yourself that you’ve failed or you’re telling yourself you’re rubbish. Start to challenge that negative voice in your head, talk back to that voice!
If you’re saying something like “you can’t do this, no wonder you’ve messed that up!” Try saying back to yourself “actually do you know what I’m okay, it’s alright if I don’t get this perfect!”
Try asking yourself whether you’d say that to a child, whatever you’re saying to yourself. Hopefully you wouldn’t say that horrible thing to a child! So now imagine saying it to yourself as the child you once were. This can be quite a good exercise to try, and will stop you from doing it again. Or at least start to make that voice a little bit quieter! It’s time to tell that nasty little voice to just shush, because it’s not helping you. It’s not getting you anywhere is it?!
3 – Ditch all that judgemental media
This one might sound a little bit weird, but go with it! It’s time to ditch all those judgemental TV programmes where they’re all about judging people. As well as all those bitchy magazines, you know the ones where they’re pointing out the little flaws and so-called failings. Like god-forbid some celebrity’s got sweat patches or they’ve not worn the ‘right’ outfit or whatever!
Unfollow people and pages on social media where all they do is judge people or poke fun at people, especially when it’s about their appearance. None of that stuff will help you feel good. You just get drawn into poking fun at other people’s appearances and if you think like that, you’re more likely to do it to yourself too. So try and stay away from any of that judgemental stuff and hopefully you’ll start to notice that you won’t be quite so judgmental with yourself.
Be kinder to yourself to feel better about yourself. Focus on self acceptance, notice the judgmental self talk and start challenging it, and ditch that judgmental media.
Give it a go and let me know how you get on.
Remember it’s time to ditch dieting forever, because you deserve better.
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Want to eat normally again AND lose weight healthily? While still enjoying the cake & chocolate? Hell yes!
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My Weekly Round-up! AKA; what I’ve been up to recently…
- Tea of the week has been the old faithful Earl Grey and it’s been especially welcome over the weekend…
- We went away on a camping trip this weekend and it was SOGGY!!!! We found a gorgeous campsite in Wales at Devils Bridge about 20mins from Aberystwyth. It all started well Friday night with a walk along the beach, chips on the seafront and Genevieve enjoyed paddling in the sea… But then it rained from Saturday onwards and that’s a fun way to find out that the waterproofing on the tent has gone – oops! I was fine where I was, but Sam and Genevieve were on the other side of the tent and got dripped on a little bit. So on the last night they slept in the car, which Genevieve thought was a real adventure!
- We had some gorgeous food at a few cafes, especially the chocolate orange cake at Cafe Clywedog. The cake was incredible and the cafe has amazing views out over the countryside. Highly recommend checking it out if you’re ever nearby.
- We went on another boat-trip in New Quay, Wales to see dolphins. This was something we’d enjoyed last year when we stayed in New Quay, but yet again the dolphins decided to hide from us! We all said we still liked going out on the sea, but we might try looking for dolphins in a different area next year…
- Another thing we all loved doing was going on the walks at Devils Bridge. We went on the first one to check out the 3 bridges and the ‘World Famous Punchbowl’ on Saturday night. Then we walked down the other to see the waterfall on Sunday night and it was STEEP! But both are well worth checking out, such amazing landscape – the waterfall was very loud.
- Despite all the rain and the leaking tent, we all agreed we had a great time with loads of highlights. And we even managed to get a hill walk in to add to our family challenge ’22 Hills In 2022′. We walked up Constitution Hill at Aberystwyth, which started off seeming a bit treacherous, but we realised half way up that we’d not gone up the main path! It did mean we got to see a cute little shrine where people had put loads of ribbons, painted rocks and shell/rock patterns. I’ve just looked it up now and apparently it’s a shrine to Our Lady Craiglais – Craiglais was the original name of the hill. So that’s 13 hills we’ve walked up so far this year – 9 hills to go!
- I’ve not really done much reading this week, but this week we’ve finished watching ‘It’s A Sin’. It was so good, but as Sam said “Good as in, tore my heart out and left it bleeding on the floor”! Totally bawled my way through it, but a good lesson in how not to parent your kids (Jill’s speech in the last episode).
- Bird Nerd Report: Saw loads of Red Kites this weekend, they were flying all over the place by Cafe Clywedog and at the campsite. Plus every time we drove anywhere we kept seeing them as well as loads of Swallows. On the boat-trip we saw a Guillemot, Kittiwakes and several Manx Shearwater, which was a bit exciting as I’d not even heard of Manx Shearwater before! Then I thought there was a Cormorant, but it was a really big Shag – lol!