“What is happening to me?

 So much pain.

My knees are killing me. 

Both my feet hurt so badly with shooting pain that I don’t know which foot to put the boot the doctor gave me. 

I’m crying in pain because my body hurts so badly and the doctors aren’t sure why.

I can’t stop gaining weight. 

I’m falling apart, is this really what life after 40 is going to be like, it’s too painful to live like this any more…”

This is how I felt when I was in my early 40’s.

I was exasperated and honestly at war with body because it had gained 65 lbs.

I was punishing my body with food addiction and bitter self-talk and mad that it wasn’t responding the way I wanted it to.

“How dare my body do this to me,” I thought.

And it wasn’t working to continue to fight and be angry at my body or myself.

I came to this breaking point over time…

But things didn’t change until I decided to start looking for the ways I could love and cherish my body and therefore, me.

I decided to start looking for ways I could make peace with my body and listen to it as if it was a sweet child in my care.

I decided that my body, is a sweet loving being, in my care, and that it is an entity that SO wants to love and serve me well, and I just didn’t know how to listen or speak to it yet.

And this made all the difference.

I waved the white flag of peace to my body.

I laid down my weapons of angry self-talk, albeit slowly, I started laying them down one by one.

And I started to ask myself how I could hear, pay attention to and care for my body like I would a small child I loved.

I decided to make small deposits of love, just like a bank account, into my body reserve.

And this looked like telling myself gently the following:

“I’ll do 10-15 minutes of Zumba today, I don’t need to do the whole hour and it’s OK to stop when my feet, knees or hips start to hurt.” (And I used to be a Zumba instructor who did HOURS of Zumba a week.)

“I’m going to take one small step to practice slowing down when I eat and put my fork down between bites.”

And then I hired a coach.

Then it turned into telling myself gently:

“I believe that I can figure this out.”

“My body will be strong again, active again, full of live and vibrancy again.”

So I kept putting small deposits of loving thoughts, nourishing food and loving movement into my body.

I didn’t spend tons of hours in the gym. I walked, I went to Zumba because it made me happy to dance and I left as soon as I hurt…and then eventually, I didn’t hurt any more and could stay the whole class.

Was it easy, no, but it was a lot easier doing it from choosing to love and listen to my body instead of being angry and at war with it.

And then I started to tell myself even more empowering things like:

“Wow, my body is feeling better, my joints and feet aren’t aching like they used to, my body is releasing weight…I wonder what else I could be capable of…I’m really figuring this out, this is so exciting…”

So then I added a weight-training class to my regimen. I like classes, I don’t like going out on the gym floor, I like someone telling me what to do and then I like to leave. So I choose to do things I like.

It was a process of slowing down, learning to listen to my body and honor it as a wise entity that really did want to love me and serve me…and it was just patiently waiting until I started to listen and love.

And now we are best friends.

We are partners, not enemies.

I truly love my body and my mind.

And I’ve chosen to continue to love it even thought the wrinkles are getting more pronounced, I’ve chosen to be in a loving relationship and speak kindly with my body.

And this is what changed everything.

I wish for you a loving, harmonious relationship with your mind and your body.

Have a wonderful weekend.

I love you.

Candy

p.s. If you’re ready to learn the specific step-by-step process to love, listen to and be in partnership with your body to lose the over-40 weight, CLICK HERE TO SCHEDULE YOUR COACHING STRATEGY CALL now.