“I just want to be normal” -a shout heard around the world
Overweight people with food challenges, eating for purposes other than fuel, often seek normalcy. Eating until comfortably full, wearing clothes for decades without size fluctuation, and living without contemplation of every morsel consumed, are lofty goals for the weight conscious, chronic dieter. Corporations profit within the diet industry while millions donate to them time, money, and effort, with limited results. Unreachable goal weights and fitness levels while being comfortable in our skin elude us during relentless trials to change. Seeking a healthy relationship with food, in search of the Holy Grail, magic pill, and solutions for a sustainable composition and lifestyle, without a relentless gain and loss proposition, continues.
Acquiescing, surrendering, and altering our mindset, to recognize that eating, food, and weight are not all the contributing factors to lifestyle change. Stemming possibly from childhood, awful food habits formed, emotional voids began, and unconditional and self-love remain uncultivated. To numb pain, soothe discomfort, and react to emotional needs, food fostered survival while masking and band-aiding problems. The treadmill of dieting through “loss and gain,” cycles repeatedly until significant change and inner healing occurs, helping us jump off the diet wagon forever.
To alter childhood lessons that shape present outcomes is challenging, yet attainable. Realizing past ingrained messages affecting today’s actions is a healing step. Habitual behavior toward food is a monumental roadblock to overcoming the body and mind’s adjustment while responding to life’s challenges. Changing self-limiting beliefs transforms the past’s effect, forwarding and altering former relationships with food. The repeated dieting cycle dissipates, new attitudes are born, and lifestyle changes have greater probability of sustainable momentum and long-term success.
When inner healing progresses, our relationship with food changes and fitness strengthens, motivates, and fosters well-being. Utilizing food for energy and nutrition, optimizing the body’s engine, is a vital step. When the mind finds clarity through “clean” eating, it enables examination of the emotional needs, clears the cobwebs of the past, and pushes inner healing forward. Strengthening the body simultaneously also affects the entire physical and mental system for change and optimal health.
Whether losing or maintaining weight, “clean” food, and fitness continuing for a lifetime require this road less travelled of inner healing. The journey to emotionally mend and improve quality of life leads to a new normal within a healthy lifestyle, requiring intense focus, deliberate intention, and community support. Self-care depends on these focused channels to repair the past and engage in the present, bringing self-satisfaction, clarity of mind, and overall well-being to us. Lifelong health and normalcy are sure to follow.