A couple of weeks ago I explained the importance of liking yourself, because if you don’t it can hold you back from improving your health. If you missed it you can read it here. This week I’ll give a few tips on how to like yourself.
My Uber Slim clients share their ups and downs with me during their journey to better health. A common reason for plateaus with weight loss, or worse – putting weight back on, is letting negative thoughts about yourself creep back in.
This starts to undo the work you’ve done up until that point, and risks all your excess weight coming back.
I’ve found that some people start off well, but then find it hard to prioritise time for themselves. This leads to lack of progress, and then feeling down that they’ll never lose their weight.
Underlying this is often something that is very difficult to admit, you don’t care enough about yourself to make space in your life to change.
So how can you pick yourself up from this and discover how to like yourself?
How to Like Yourself
If you’ve not liked yourself for a while, you might find this a little challenging to begin with. The harder you find this – the more you need to do it!
I’m going to put down just a few simple things for you to try, see which one feels like the best fit and start with that, but have a go at each.
Talk To Yourself As a Friend
We are sometimes our own worst enemy, in the way we talk to ourselves. Imagine saying some of the things to your nearest and dearest that you say to yourself. Ever said anything this to yourself:
- I’m useless
- I’m rubbish
- I’m fat
- I’m ugly
- I’ll never be happy
- I’ll never be slim
How many friends would you have if you said this kind of stuff to them? How would people feel if you spoke like this to them?
Yet you may be saying things like this to yourself constantly throughout the day. You can’t be your own friend if you speak like this to yourself, and can’t like yourself if this is how you treat yourself.
When you notice what you’re saying, ask yourself “Would I say this to a friend?” If the answer is no, the next question to ask is “What would I say to a friend?”
To a friend you would say something nice or encouraging.
Accept Where You Are Now
A lot of people are in a vicious cycle about where they are right now with their health and weight. They are focused on everything that is wrong – and this is often reflected in their negative self-talk.
This focus is keeping you right where you are, stuck.
It’s only by accepting where you are now that you can really look beyond that, to what it is you really want.
Whenever we feel negative emotion, it means we are looking in the wrong direction at that particular thing.
Getting low about being overweight and unhealthy is an invitation for you to turn that focus around by 180 degrees. If you don’t want this, what do you want? This is one of the starting points to change.
Appreciate the Good Things
There are things to appreciate about yourself if you look for them.
A lot of people find this quite difficult, but very rewarding after they’ve done it.
Take a little time out and write down all of the good things about you.
Think about the compliments people have paid you, the things you’re good at, how you care for people, how other people love you. Think about all the things you do well, past achievements, your sense of humour. Push yourself and make a long list.
Look at this list every day, and add at least one thing to it each day.
The most you appreciate yourself, the more you will like yourself. But if you haven’t appreciated yourself much lately, you going to need to put a little effort in, and learn how again.
Visualise a Better You
This ties in with what you want (which is the opposite of what you’re probably focusing on). Visualising a ‘better you’ is a great part of how to like yourself a lot better.
Think about what you want to look like, how you want to feel, how you would like to be. Bring a mental image to mind, change it until you’re happy with what it’s like.
When you’re happy try stepping in to what you’re created in your mind. By that I mean imagine being inside this new version of you, rather than just looking at it. Try it on for size, make changes if it doesn’t feel quite right.
The more often you do this kind on ‘mind work’, the quicker you will like yourself again. When you like yourself you will become worth your effort to change.
And if you feel you haven’t got time for this – ask yourself why that is? Because the answer to that question is going to be your starting point.
This is the kind of stuff I cover in Uber Slim, because it’s so important to overcome.
Weight loss is not all about what you eat and what exercise you do – all that is meaningless unless you get your head sorted out.
Weight loss in all in the mind, which is why I focus on it so much in the course. And how to like yourself is really important.
You can find out more about Uber Slim by clicking here. And you’re very welcome to contact me to ask any questions about it.
Have a great week
Dr Julie
PS Let me know if this will help you learn how to like yourself a bit better.