As I wrote in the previous post about Loving Yourself , accepting yourself for whom you are and the body you were blessed with, is only the beginning.
Loving yourself is the foundation and probably the hardest step to fulfilling your life’s purpose. When I speak of showing yourself love, what I mean by that is to put the same effort of inner love to your outer self. It is a whole new level of loving yourself and what I believe to be the pathway of getting to know your true self. As I go through the journey of accepting who I am, I noticed that the temple (my body) that houses my true self also needed some tender love and care. After having 5 kids and dedicating my time to them, I gained weight and being 5 feet at 150 lbs., I was overweight. I always liked to workout, but I was never consistent in my workouts. I would use the reasons like, “I don’t have time” or “I am too tired to go” (Explaining why I chose to use the word “reason” instead of “excuses” is a whole new post on it’s own). This went on until, I realized that I couldn’t love myself or help others realize their full potential if I didn’t love my whole self. I realized that what I put into my body was as important as what I put into my mind. So I made the choice of becoming vegetarian. I noticed a difference in the way I felt physically, but I didn’t notice any changes as far as my weight. Again I would go to the gym on and off until I had an epiphany. How was I going to love my whole self if I didn’t know the potential I had or how much I could accomplish if I kept putting limitations on what my body could do? We all have concerns about our appearances, but by complaining about them, we put those negative thoughts back in our lives. I had already started the process of knowing how great I was, but every time I couldn’t find clothing that fit me properly, I would feel sad and disappointed.
I do want to make it clear that I believe that we are all beautiful for who we are and not for how we look, but the way we care for our temple is how we show the love we have for ourselves. We only get one body to carry out our purpose and caring for it is vitally important. We can’t help those we love if we are not caring for ourselves. How was I going to help those that I loved the most with their health if I wasn’t caring for my own. We are all busy doing what life requires from us, but making that time for yourself is as important as your deadlines, chores, children, spouse etc.
Becoming vegetarian is not the only option to get into shape. So I don’t want you to think that I am saying that, that’s the only choice for you. I stopped being a full time vegetarian because I found it hard to compromise with my meat eaters (plus money wise), but I do limit many things that I put in my body. For the most part, I cook vegetarian and sometimes vegan. My best advise is to take things a day at a time and giving yourself the power to choose.
“Today I choose to leave out from my body.”
Having the power to choose to leave out a certain drink, food or getting up to exercise can become a life long choice. Be proud of your accomplishments no matter how small they are and be okay with your downfalls. Every morning is a new day to make a better choice.
I enjoyed the post you put out. More clearly I liked that you stated that for yourself your eating vegetarian, but that its not for everyone. You can’t believe how many people look at me and say I have to become one, as it was the only way to drop weight. But I also agree with the idea that we should love ourselves. President Uchtdorf said we should be nice to ourselves. And I believe it is a founding principle on how we treat others, we must first hold ourselves to that standard. I am telling my friends that they need to talk nice to themselves. I also know that what the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve….my aisma really exercise wise holds me back. THank you for the great post.
I love that you shared what President Uchtdorf said. Keep up the good work on sharing the love and teaching others to do the same with themselves.