Re: Body Acceptance

[Guest guest]

Hi, M.

What a great post! Thank you.

I too have wished many times to have the body I hated at 22. Or the one I still hated at 42. And now that I'm 62, I have all sorts of new reasons I can cite for hating this body now (aging skin, the scars from breast cancer, etc.) but I'm finding that even though those thoughts haven't gone away, the more I feed myself with satisfaction and give up attacking myself for every little thing I eat, the more I'm also easing up on the body image stuff. I think there's something about eating "naturally" that makes me more accepting of what my body naturally is. And this very gentle process of learning what I like to eat and how I feel before and after I eat, and learning without judgment about when I eat emotionally and what my other needs are, is also generating a gentleness in my internal world that carries over into other areas. I have less perfectionism about who I should be, and more sense that there are lots of interesting ways for bodies to look. I've had TONS of therapy but there is something remarkable about the effect of IE. I found myself saying to someone the other day that even though I'm actually heavier, I'm really HAPPIER being more at peace with food and body.

BTW, has anyone ever heard the 20-40-60 rule? It goes like this: At 20 you can't bear that everyone is judging you. At 40 you say F*** them, I'm going to be myself anyway. And at 60 you begin to realize they were never even thinking about you in the first place. There is some truth to it, but I never expected that for me it would carry over into the bad feelings about my body, but thanks to IE, it seems to be doing just that.

April

Hi everyone,I just came from meeting with my IE nutritionist and I realized that I'm still dealing with not being able to accept my body as it is and as a result kept getting back into the abyss of the dieting world.I think the ultimate question is this: "If I were to have this current body for the rest of my life, would I be happy?"And initially, the answer was definitely no. In fact, I thought I would be such a failure if I stayed like this.However, I remember saying that to myself when I was a size 8... next thing I knew, I ate myself to a size 10. Then said the same thing and the next thing I knew, I was a size 14, and continued... until now.I realize now that I would kill to be any of those sizes. So if I don't accept myself now, I know the only thing that is going to happen is in another five years, I would be dying to be where I am now.And what's wrong with me now? NOTHING!I'm beautiful, have a loving boyfriend, I'm active, can dance, move, run, and do whatever I need to do. I also dress well and look pretty damn good! I am vowing to stop this madness and love myself the way I am and take care of myself, nurture myself with compassion and kindness. I saw this quote today that really hit home yesterday: "I treat myself as I treat a child I love."That's my goal and that is what I aspire towards.With Love,M.------------------------------------

[Guest guest]

M, That was inspiring, thank you for sharing.JennaTo: IntuitiveEating_Support Sent: Fri, February 4, 2011 11:04:51 AMSubject: Body Acceptance

Hi everyone,

I just came from meeting with my IE nutritionist and I realized that I'm still dealing with not being able to accept my body as it is and as a result kept getting back into the abyss of the dieting world.

I think the ultimate question is this: "If I were to have this current body for the rest of my life, would I be happy?"

And initially, the answer was definitely no. In fact, I thought I would be such a failure if I stayed like this.

However, I remember saying that to myself when I was a size 8... next thing I knew, I ate myself to a size 10. Then said the same thing and the next thing I knew, I was a size 14, and continued... until now.

I realize now that I would kill to be any of those sizes. So if I don't accept myself now, I know the only thing that is going to happen is in another five years, I would be dying to be where I am now.

And what's wrong with me now? NOTHING!

I'm beautiful, have a loving boyfriend, I'm active, can dance, move, run, and do whatever I need to do. I also dress well and look pretty damn good!

I am vowing to stop this madness and love myself the way I am and take care of myself, nurture myself with compassion and kindness.

I saw this quote today that really hit home yesterday: "I treat myself as I treat a child I love."

That's my goal and that is what I aspire towards.

With Love,

M.