As with every new year, 2018 invariably brings along oodles of resolutions to lose weight, diet, join a gym. If this is you, I have some words of encouragement and some pleas for you. If that isn't you, most of these things still apply.
1. Don't approach 2018 with the mindset of punishing yourself. Your body is amazing and wonderful. Whether you're 100 pounds or 500 pounds or anywhere above, below, or in between, you are amazing. You are created by the God who made the stars and mountains and trees and snow and hummingbirds and Northern Lights and pineapples. That same artist made you. You are a masterpiece, so please treat yourself (and everyone else) as one. You do not deserve to be punished for not meeting the modern notion of how your body should look. Your body is capable of marvelous things, work toward achieving some of those, like rad yoga poses or learning to dance, rather than beating yourself up.
2. Strike the word diet from your vocabulary. Yes, diet technically means the food you eat, but that's not what millions mean in their resolutions. What is meant is more grueling than that. It is possible to enjoy food and still be healthy. Food is meant to fuel your body, to give you energy to do, to think, to live. Approach it with that mindset.
3. Make health your main focus and goal, not a certain number on the scale or on the tag in your jeans. When health is your goal what matters is that you feel good, have energy, sleep well. Focusing on health will still usually result in a more amicable relationship between you and the numerical value assigned to the Earth's gravitational pull on you; however, by paying attention to how you feel instead of obsessively weighing, measuring, or counting calories you'll be focused on enjoying life rather than trying to control it.
(I understand that these things in balance can be helpful, that is not what I'm addressing here.)
4. You matter and you are loved. I hope you don't look in the mirror and hate the person staring back at you, but I know it happens. Guess what, though? That same God who created you, He sent his son to Earth for you. In fact if you'll recall, we just celebrated that. Don't forget that baby in a manger who came to save the world. He grew up and died for you, and there is *nothing* you can do to be unworthy of that love. He gives it freely. We cannot earn it and we cannot lose it. I hope you have people in your life who love you similarly to the best of their human ability. Since you're reading this you know that you at least have one.
5. Give yourself grace. Grace upon grace upon grace. If you were slightly less awesome today than you planned/hoped, that does not diminish your capacity for being awesome tomorrow. New mercies in the morning.
6. Because it cannot be overstated, be awesome. No matter what happened yesterday, whether you met your fitness goals or stayed in your pajamas and only ate ice cream, wake up every morning and plan to be awesome. Enjoy life, put on a cute outfit, eat food that fuels your body, and dance (or any other fun activity that ends up being a workout too). Be awesome because you are (probably) and you should let the world see that in you.
7. Love yourself so that you can love others. Love yourself so that you can love others. Love yourself so that you can love others. Loving your neighbor as yourself starts with loving yourself. The God who created love, the God who is love, finds you lovable.
Here's to an amazing 2018!
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. None of this should be construed as medical or nutritional advice of any kind.
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