How much time have you lost in a day, week or month by thinking about your weight?
Society messes with women from a young age with the “perfect size, shape and number on the scale”.
It’s wild how an arbitrary number on a screen can determine the fate of your day.
From cabbage soup and boiled egg diets to fat blasting 28 day Brazilian booty challenges, I’ve tried them all and struggled to reach my “goal weight” (aka a number a fitness coach set for me in my 20’s).
My Mom was on a diet everyday of her life until she ended up in a coma before dying of cancer.
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Yes, while on chemo and battling cancer she was on a diet – still.
Prednisone was necessary to keep salad plate sized blisters from forming on her body but it kept 30 pounds on top of the 15 she spent her entire life trying to lose.
She was obsessed with weight loss when she could have been focused on healing her cancer.
Right down to our last family picture together where she critiqued how fat she looked in it.
While dusting at my Dad’s house last weekend I spent a few moments looking at those pictures.
Could things have been different if she talked to her body differently?
Observing my Mom, I learned at an early age that my body was my enemy not my friend.
And through the 10 years of ups and downs with her breast cancer my lesson was reinforced as the chemo ravaged her body in the same manner she beat up on it.
Self love wasn’t something I knew was possible based on my observations.
I thought you were supposed to be frustrated with your body when it didn’t drop 5 pounds in a week, melt the cellulite every time you worked out and did weird stuff like provoke a hot flash while ordering at a restaurant or pop out the largest zit on your chin at 46.
Aging challenges your relationship with your body in ways you never imagined.
What if the scale paired with media were meant to keep you distracted?
And what if you spent each day observing the amazing things your body can do versus being frustrated for what it’s not doing?
The mirror exercise is a fun way to do this.
You have 20 muscles in your face and they help you make all kinds of expressions.
- Everyday wake up and take 60 seconds (yes, count them) to look at yourself in the mirror.
- Start by tracing your finger on the edge of your lips as if you’re putting on lip gloss (this is a nervous system resetting tool to help you ease in).
- Then move into 60 seconds of observing or making faces to see all the cool things your face can do
- Notice what thoughts come up as you look in the mirror – what can you learn from those thoughts?
- Spend the first 3 days looking in the mirror for 1 minute straight (yes, set a timer if you have to).
- Then every day after that add 30 seconds till you reach 3 minutes
- Make different faces, smile different ways and look into your eyes the entire time.
- Develop a mantra to say to yourself each morning – and mean it!
Maybe it’s as simple as “hello beautiful” or “good morning miss awesomeness”.
Tailor it to you and have fun with it!
The first week I did this I laughed at myself but after a while it turned to a genuine smile.
While it’s not a big self love seminar that people would like you to think makes all the difference I’m here to tell you – little consistent steps make all the difference.
Here’s to lighting up your day – one mirror session at a time!
Dr. Jannine Krause
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