Does your brain ever tell you that you have to lose weight to be enough? YOU ARE ALREADY ENOUGH.

"What is happening to me?

 So much pain.

My knees are killing me. 

Both my feet hurt so badly with shooting pain that I don't know which foot to put the boot the doctor gave me. 

I'm crying in pain because my body hurts so badly and the doctors aren't sure why.

I can't stop gaining weight. 

I'm falling apart, is this really what life after 40 is going to be like, it's too painful to live like this any more..."

This is how I felt when I was in my early 40's.

I was exasperated and honestly at war with body because it had gained 65 lbs.

I was punishing my body with food addiction and bitter self-talk and mad that it wasn't responding the way I wanted it to.

"How dare my body do this to me," I thought.

And it wasn't working to continue to fight and be angry at my body or myself.

I came to this breaking point over time...

But things didn't change until I decided to start looking for the ways I could love and cherish my body and therefore, me.

I decided to start looking for ways I could make peace with my body and listen to it as if it was a sweet child in my care.

I decided that my body, is a sweet loving being, in my care, and that it is an entity that SO wants to love and serve me well, and I just didn't know how to listen or speak to it yet.

And this made all the difference.

I waved the white flag of peace to my body.

I laid down my weapons of angry self-talk, albeit slowly, I started laying them down one by one.

And I started to ask myself how I could hear, pay attention to and care for my body like I would a small child I loved.

I decided to make small deposits of love, just like a bank account, into my body reserve.

And this looked like telling myself gently the following:

"I'll do 10-15 minutes of Zumba today, I don't need to do the whole hour and it's OK to stop when my feet, knees or hips start to hurt." (And I used to be a Zumba instructor who did HOURS of Zumba a week.)

"I'm going to take one small step to practice slowing down when I eat and put my fork down between bites."

And then I hired a coach.

Then it turned into telling myself gently:

"I believe that I can figure this out."

"My body will be strong again, active again, full of live and vibrancy again."

So I kept putting small deposits of loving thoughts, nourishing food and loving movement into my body.

I didn't spend tons of hours in the gym. I walked, I went to Zumba because it made me happy to dance and I left as soon as I hurt...and then eventually, I didn't hurt any more and could stay the whole class.

Was it easy, no, but it was a lot easier doing it from choosing to love and listen to my body instead of being angry and at war with it.

And then I started to tell myself even more empowering things like:

"Wow, my body is feeling better, my joints and feet aren't aching like they used to, my body is releasing weight...I wonder what else I could be capable of...I'm really figuring this out, this is so exciting..."

So then I added a weight-training class to my regimen. I like classes, I don't like going out on the gym floor, I like someone telling me what to do and then I like to leave. So I choose to do things I like.

It was a process of slowing down, learning to listen to my body and honor it as a wise entity that really did want to love me and serve me...and it was just patiently waiting until I started to listen and love.

And now we are best friends.

We are partners, not enemies.

I truly love my body and my mind.

And I've chosen to continue to love it even thought the wrinkles are getting more pronounced, I've chosen to be in a loving relationship and speak kindly with my body.

And this is what changed everything.

I wish for you a loving, harmonious relationship with your mind and your body.

Have a wonderful weekend.

I love you.

Candy

p.s. If you're ready to learn the specific step-by-step process to love, listen to and be in partnership with your body to lose the over-40 weight, CLICK HERE TO SCHEDULE YOUR COACHING STRATEGY CALL now.