The ULTIMATE weight loss and healthy body component!

January 22, 2013 by Mastin Kipp 53 Comments

So if you have been reading TDL for any amount of time, you know that I am on a constant mission to get in better shape and lose the belly fat.

It’s a process.

I haven’t really hit the gym in about a month, since right before Christmas. But all that changes today; I’m back at it. I have been in Ojai writing a book and I had no idea how intense a process that would be.

So for my next book I will design more health and fitness into my schedule.

But the good news is, as I’ve recently blogged about, I have taken massive leaps forward towards getting all processed sugar, agave, coconut sugar, etc. out of my diet. This is a life-long addiction that I have struggled with. I’ve kicked cocaine, but for me, sugar is harder – because it’s acceptable.

When I was meeting the other week with my Chinese medicine doctor, she told me that no amount of exercise or diet will ever keep me at a healthy weight if I hate myself and my belly fat.

But there is one key component that will.

What is it?

Self-love.

I know, I didn’t want to hear it either. I was so tired of hearing that you have to “love yourself” to your ideal weight. It’s like one of those silly clichés that I’m sick of hearing, because I hear it ALL the time.

So on my way to an event that I was going to later that night, I thought about a friend of mine who I haven’t seen in a while. She lost A LOT of weight really quickly and got down to like 3-5% body fat. She was always my idol in this way.

Knowing what I know about this person, I’m pretty sure she didn’t love herself. So I decided that my Chinese doc was full of it and I didn’t want to pay attention to this cliché.

Well, when I arrived at the event I was going to, my friend was there. And – she had put on all the weight again. In fact, she had put on even MORE weight than when she was at her heaviest.

And it was almost like The Divine was saying to me, “You are right, she didn’t love herself and so she didn’t keep the weight off.”

And the words of my Chinese medicine doctor rang true – you can’t keep weight off “sustainably” without self-love.

And from that moment forward, I got it – time to LOVE the belly fat.

So, what to do? Well, every time I’m feeling like I’m “fat” or not loving that part of my body, I stop and send LOVE down there.

As I was doing this the other day, I had a flash back to when I was 5 or 6 and trying on some clothes I REALLY wanted to wear in a department store.

But – they didn’t fit. In fact, they didn’t have any clothes that fit me in the store.

I got SO angry. I was mad at myself. I didn’t understand why I was so weird, that I couldn’t be like everyone else.

And in that moment, my self-hate started. And it’s stayed with me ever since.

And now, 26 years later, I am face to face with it and trying my best – one day at a time – to Love myself and the parts of myself that I don’t.

What’s so cool is that when I do send Love down there, my anxiety chills. And those food cravings that I’m so used to chill, too. Why? I’m not totally sure, but it seems like that self-hate is stressful and that it has been fueling the cycle of overeating.

So, inject a little self-love – and that goes away. It’s a new practice, but something I am now looking forward to doing.

I’m EXCITED to see what doing this and keeping the sugar out will manifest in my life. It’s unknown territory that I am eager to explore.

Where can your life use a little self-love?

As always, the action happens in the comments below. Leave a comment and join the conversation! The TDL Community thrives in the comments and it’s a GREAT place to get support!

Love,

Mastin

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Mastin Kipp is the founder and CEO of The Daily Love. Follow him on Twitter here.

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toe_knee3

Okay, okay Mastin. I will send LOVE to my belly fat. But I’m pretty sure I don’t want my belly fat to love me back, DO I?! (thanks for this great blog!)
- Lucky Me!
  
  Another thing I remind myself is how LUCKY I am to have this chance to lose weight & improve my health (have metabolic syndrome due to weight gain of 50 lbs. over the last 7 years while in a deep depression & on medication that has the side effect of weight gain that led to more depression & then more emotional eating due to being depressed about being fat–even though I got off the medication my BMI of “obese” now continues to keep me depressed unless I work really hard at changing my thought patterns–skill learned in DBT {Dialectical Behavioral Therapy}).
  
  Both my parents were diabetic & had complications from the disease & I am lucky enough to save myself from that condition & those consequences by eating healthy food & exercising my body & in a joyful way–not w/a strained face & gritting my teeth, but w/the feeling of joy & love that I can use my muscles, feel that wonderful stretch when I have finished a workout & enjoy a slow stroll w/my husband–moving my body w/out thinking of how many calories I’ve burned. Basically, I change my thoughts away from “dieting” & deprivation to one of gratitude that I have the power to reverse my negative consequences of my weight gain before it is irreversible (heart attack, developing diabetes, etc.) AND
  
  Another tool I use is ANGER. This worked when I quit smoking 20+ years ago. I got so angry at how those cigarettes were controlling me; whenever we went out I had to smoke before we left & wash thoroughly so no smell of smoke was on me as it had become more acceptable to be a heroin addict (practically) than smoke.
  
  So I got damn angry at those cigarettes & wouldn’t let them control me. I try to use the same tactic w/my tendency to overeat or to eat non-nourishing foods. Food or bad eating habits are not going to win this battle!
  
  I also wrote a “Dear John” letter to high-fat foods, binge eating habits, & drinking too much wine. It was a creative & fun way for me to say “Goodbye” to those “coping skills” that were now turning against me & hurting me. Under stress & when bored I used all of those “coping skills” & they did work on the short term, but then they turned against me & stopped reducing my stress but increasing it; stopped soothing me & instead started making me depressed & have my self-esteem dip w/every bite, etc.
  
  Eating “mindfully” is really difficult for me, but I had to break the links of eating while reading or eating just when I smelled food or saw my husband eat. I had to learn what “hunger feels like.” And not give in to “mouth hunger”!
  
  Please excuse any typos! Need to go to bed–tired (another thing I used to do was eat for energy; now when I am tired I go to bed!)…
Reneedc

Perfect timing on this one! Thank you
Dr. Nicole J Talbot

Try THE PLAN by Lyn-Genet Recitas. As a family practice physician I always liked Weight Watchers, but once in my 30′s it was much harder to lose the weight, and the bloating! Lyn-Genet has a theory, that is correct, that we are reactiving to certain foods. Eliminate these foods, and the weight comes off. I could not get rid of 10 lbs and I read about her in MORE magazine. I worked with her team of nutritionists and I lost the 10 lbs and feel better. No more headaches, migraines, reflux, altitude sickness (usually ski trips), skin and hair are better, no more bloating. I feel like I was given the holy grail for health and weight loss. Everybody reactive foods are different, mine were beans, and roasted nuts, which I was eating daily. She was recently on Dr. Oz discussing this theory. Amazing. Please look into this.
MyFitStation.com

So true Mastin! Arghhh, I feel the same way sometimes about loving my love handles, just thinking about it gets me furious but it’s actually true, you gotta love yourself if you want to achieve anything worth achieving! Only them will you trully stop the destructive cycle of emotional eating or any other eating disorder for that matter. I’m currently writing a series of diet makeover tips and this week I’ll be addressing emotional eating and I think this post will be pretty helpful!
Thanks again Mastin, and btw, did you start your new fitness blog???
Isabella
Larndt_cds

As a kid I had the exact same experience. To complicate things, my parents shamed me for eating basically what they put in front of me or kept in the house. I also turned to drugs in my 20′s. At 44 I’m finding myself and loving myself. I do notice when I send love to my body it performs for me. I’m working on getting weight off now and breaking this life long cycle. Thank you for writing this blog. It helps me stay on track. I’m reading a book called The Healing Codes, which might interest you. I also have done EFT, which did help. The Healing Codes allow you to heal cell memories on your own body. Kind of cool! Blessings to you.
- JoiLynn
  
  Sounds awesome, I’m going to check Healing Codes out.
http://www.etiquetteguy.com Jay Remer

Perhaps your Chinese doctor is alluding to the concept that your commitment to resisting not loving yourself is stronger at the moment than your commitment to accepting loving yourself. Just a thought from an old fossil.
http://www.mysunlitstudio.wordpress.com/ Patricia

Your story of your memory from when you were a little kid really hit home for me in that all of the things we learn, we learn so young and we really have to go back and find that root to – weed it out, if you will. Good luck Mastin, you’re doing all the right things!
EllieHuggins

Hi Mastin, thank you for so honestly sharing on a subject not often expressed openly in our society. I have been reading and doing the lessons from Marianne Williamson’s “A Course in Weight Loss” and learning to love myself and repair the broken places in my heart while mending damage to my body.

Keep up the courage in learning to love yourself and your body!
http://www.facebook.com/roxana.nunez Roxana Nunez

I always read posts like this with fascination when a man admits that he has the same issues we women have. It shows that we have more similarities than we care to admit.

I used to think that self love was too easy an answer to deal with this dilemma. I have been struggling with weight for the second half of my life (I am 46 now and I started gaining weight in my 20s). I recently discovered that my self hate came at about my late teens when I was bullied by my neighbors.

It took me more than 20 years to realize that I let those bullies stay in my head all this time. And now, I am working on loving myself, fat and all. I am even dressing for the curves. I don’t know if that means anything to the weight on my scale. I know I feel happier.

Good luck with your journey.
Angela

Hey Mastin, I’ve lost 12kg (26 pounds) this past year and the big difference I’ve made was to ‘love what I choose.’ If I chose to stay the same weight then I would love that. It didn’t mean I was giving up, I was just choosing my body as it was. If I chose to lose weight I would love that too. It didn’t mean I thought skinny was better. It just meant I wanted to trim down. Since dropping years of baggage and changing my mindset, my body has been shrinking! At 33 I’m looking better than ever before and I’m LOVING my self and my body. My confidence is soaring and the weight is staying off so easily! Also, I’m eating more food than ever before! For years I was mostly eating vegetables and my body was in starvation mode! Now I focus my diet on green smoothies, lots of protein and occasionally chocolate and even ice cream (things I’d forbidden for years)! Love what you choose and the baggage will drop!
- http://www.are-you-there-kathleen-its-me-god.blogspot.com/ Kathleen Reynolds Chelquist
  
  I so loved your comment Angela that I posted it on my FB wall! Thank you!
- http://profile.yahoo.com/YWR76UXQRVPALBWS6TNPU4OPPA Miguel
  
  i’m going through the same thing, Angela, and it’s very true
  when you’re truly ok with what you’re choosing to eat the weight is stable (well if you only eat chocolate cake 24/7, that’s another story, lol)… if you feel that you’re REALLY loving (for the right, self-loving reasons) to be fit and trimmed, your body will be fit and toned sustainably, as Mastin said!
  Great read, thanks!
Bee

This was a beautiful post. I can definitely identify, as I am on a weight loss journey as well and it is tough to accept the extra pounds that I know that I have. But I recognize that loving where I’m at right now today will help me in the long run. Very inspirational post.
Nicole

Great post! I lost 20lbs this year and self-love was the main thing that helped me lose it and keep it off. I agree that all of the self-hate and the negative talk just makes us eat more. Way to go!
Simplefood1124

oh mastin, you’ve hit it right on the head!! i do hate my belly fat!! always have for 43 years I’ve been on this earth I think. And like your friend I too have lost the weight, felt great, but I still hadn’t worked on those self love parts that would keep it that way! Over the past 5 yrs almost all the weight has crept back into my life! ugh. so i found TDL only a few weeks ago and I’ve had some other things happening in my life as far as God leading me to my main purpose and I’m becoming HAPPY…..I’m loving waking up in the morning….I’m just so grateful for my life now….and I’m working on the self-love. I will definitely give your idea of ‘loving those parts of my body…and sending them love’!! I did it as soon as I read your post, and honestly as a woman and mother…..I had this sense of warmth and love that I had never realized about my ‘belly’….that is where my son lived for 9 months and God gave that to me as a gift!! Why have a hated it for all these years?? Thank you Mastin!! Keep us updated on your ‘belly love’!!
Veronica

I love today’s post, Mastin. I just came back from my doctor appointment where she told me I didn’t lose any weight at all, despite all the efforts I’m making. I’ll start this self-love right now! Everyone here’s my witness. I’m overdemanding to myself and that’s definitely not doing me any good. Thanks for the inspiration… It’s just what I needed.
http://twitter.com/makingitallfit MakingitallfitMO

Mastin: love that you are sharing your journey! When I released my 50 pounds it came from love. I loved myself down the scale and I hated myself up it. When the cravings come; love them because they have a message for you.
Mj Salvatore

Mastin, I love reading your posts all the time, but this one hit especially close to home. I recently thought it was time to put my story out there of weight loss and published a blog about it. Would love for you to check it out and let me know what you think!
- Mj Salvatore
  
  http://progressprogressprogress.wordpress.com/
AC

Check out Geneen Roth’s “Women, Food and God”, an amazing book that answers the question as to why loving the disenfranchised part of ourselves makes our food cravings go away. I discovered that my desire to numb with food resulted from ignoring a part of me that really needed attention – my inner child, who learned at a very young age to suppress her own needs, wishes and voice to please the adults around her. Ignoring that part of me manifested in numbing with food/wine and moving through life in a depressed funk. Roth’s book, as well as another amazing book, “Notes from My Inner Child” by Tanha Luvaas are bringing me into awareness and recovery!
Jodi

Hello – wow, this really resonated with me – thank you! There is no order of difficulty in miracles, right? Therefore I will start to love my belly fat and pray deeply for a miracle!!! I have blamed my belly fat for so much, so much shame, for feeling unattractive, that no man will love me because of my belly fat – it is time to end this hurtful and hateful relationship and blast it with so much love! I will try…in every moment I will send love and light to my beautiful belly and will report back in a few months and let you know how it’s coming along. Love…my belly! (phew it’s about time she started being nice to me!!)
http://twitter.com/AnnaTaylors Anna Taylor

Your honesty really touched my heart today, Mastin. I shared a very similar message with my friends earlier for different but very simliar reason. It’s time to LOVE myself and that includes my body that has given me so many reasons why I should not. Much love to you and all of us xx
http://www.are-you-there-kathleen-its-me-god.blogspot.com/ Kathleen Reynolds Chelquist

Validation. Yep, it reared it’s ugly head again yesterday. Instead, of breathing and relaxing into it as an observer of my EGO Kathleen, I bought in. Hook, Line, and Sinker. I notice that when my friends, family, husband, and etc., do not validate what I am saying, I frustrate myself. I am ADDICTED to being understood. ADDICTED to respect. ADDICTED to being liked. Yeah…that’s going to make them listen…NOT! My mentor continually reminds me, “Welcome to my world and get used to it if you want to become a teacher, Kathleen.” Many people think, “What in the heck is Kathleen talking about.” I think, “How can people NOT understand.” From the minute I met my mentor, Cinnamon Lofton, in my dental chair, I knew. Although it has been hard to look at myself, it has been simple for me to see the truth of LOVE. I want to run around and slap everyone silly to WAKE UP!!!! I then create loneliness. Cinnamon reminds me that if I feel lonely, I have not completely woken up either. MIRROR, MIRROR! This is how I create a bridge with my fellow awakening beings. This is when I realize that I would not have these addictions if I was clear from moment to moment. Enlightenment is a moment to moment decision. EVERY ONE has experienced it when they are present…the key is to choose it again and again and again. This is when we will KNOW what to do in EVERY situation. We will be FEARLESS. Just think of one moment in your life that you have created this (everything is so clear and loving), and then you let go because the doubt of fear set in…It is REAL, IT IS TRUE. This is what all the spiritual masters wanted us to know. We are them and they are us. Now, GO CHOOSE IT!
The Daily Commenter,
Kathleen
are-you-there-kathleen-its-me-god.blogspot.com/
- http://profile.yahoo.com/YWR76UXQRVPALBWS6TNPU4OPPA Miguel
  
  Great comment, i can relate to everything you just said… so true, and yes enlightenment & being present is of course something to bring in every moment, a moment to moment decision that will gradually turn into an effortless state… getting there and i guess gradually so are you!! great!
  - http://www.are-you-there-kathleen-its-me-god.blogspot.com/ Kathleen Reynolds Chelquist
    
    Thanks Miguel…Yes, I am choosing it and not all the time. Many people think it is not possible to choose enlightenment every minute and because I know someone who does…IT IS POSSIBLE. Rare, but possible. LOL
MySideoftheLake

Mastin, all, I need your help. I don’t understand this “send your belly fat/love handles love” thing. Do I say, “I love you belly fat/love handles”? I just recently learned that I have never loved myself and that I have a low sense of self…very shocking for a previously successful 44 year old…also devastating.

I am trying to meet the new me, but I’ve been buried for so long that I have a hard time identifying any positive feelings for myself. I am so co-dependent that I don’t even know what I like or what makes me happy. I have never been this sad or confused, yet relieved, in my life. Through therapy and some self-help programs, I am learning why I made mistakes in my past, but I am having a hard time connecting to my emotional self.
I’ve been doing A LOT of crying, but I think that’s loss and grief.

I want to be happy and confident again. I want the whole package, body and mind and spirit. SO, I’m working on the mind, I need the body work and a TON of spirit work. I love your blog and the posts that follow. I felt, as a man, that this stuff wasn’t for me, so I stuffed it all down and resented myself for having these thoughts. I now know I was wrong, but old habits die hard.

How do I love myself? Is that selfish?
- Jill H.
  
  Self love start with simply reciting the mantra “i love my belly. I accept my belly”, but more over you love your self by doing things that make you feel overwhelmed with joy and it is absolutely NOT selfish.
  
  Find out what YOU love to do and do it! Go see that arty film by your self or take your self on a date to dinner or lunch. get comfortable with just YOU. Spend alone time with you, just like you would any other partner.
  - MySideoftheLake
    
    Thank you, I am touched and grateful.
- Christina
  
  I have learned that you need to love yourself first before you can love anyone else. It isn’t selfish! I too thought it was selfish but over the course of 5 months, I have learned otherwise. I falter from time to time, because I am human, but I jump back on the self-love wagon within minutes. XoXo
- lovedajourney
  
  Be patient and be kind to yourself. You are not alone. You sound a little like I did about a year or so ago – and I’m 46 You are already learning and practicing making yourself more vulnerable – and THAT is hard as hell, but THAT is where it’s at!! Breathe easy and make a resolution to love yourself, and then love yourself some more.
- FitnessModelElite
  
  Loving ones self is not selfish….it is essential !!! You can’t expect anyone else to love you like you want to be loved if you can’t love yourself. I think there are MANY men out there who are going through the exact same thing BUT who are too ashamed or afraid to to say anything. Just by acknowledging your position & personal challenge is the 1st & biggest step to solving it, congrats for having the courage!
  Maybe investing in some one on one time with Mastin to help overcome your emotional challenges & then when you feel more in control there, investing in a realistic & sustainable Nutrition & Fitness Program designed personally for you & your lifestyle.
  fitnessmodelelite@gmail.com
Jill H.

I, too, struggle with my belly and no matter how many people told me to embrace my ‘curvy’ body or fall in love with the goddess because she doesn’t have a flat belly or small-ish breasts so on and so forth, it could have never made a difference to me until I started REALLY and truly loving myself. People have asked me how I lost the 40 pounds I have shed over the last three years and my simplest response is, “I got happy”. It’s so true. I give my best to not fret over the way that I look, but I am a human and some times falter.

My trigger point is from elementary school and having a child younger than I point, call me fat and lots of other students laughing about it. It was humiliating and still makes me feel sad for that young girl who didn’t know any better.
Miha

If I have complex carbs, protein and healthy fats I don’t have cravings.
Christina

Hey Mastin, I am experiencing the same journey. I stepped away from the gym for a couple months to actually LIVE and learn how to love the body parts I dreaded. For once, I finally feel free and whenever a negative though pops up in my head, I have a quick come back. We gotta love every inch of our body! =)
AZ

Ah yes, the ever simple, yet elusive practice of self-love. I think it is important to approach the “love” in self-love as both noun and verb. In other words, to really get over the hump of addictive and compulsive behaviors we need to come to a place of willingness to embrace all pieces of ourselves (including those that we have disowned) and take regular, consistent actions that are based in love to change our responses when the compulsion to do something that is ultimately harmful to ourselves arises.In my opinion, it is primarily the parts of ourselves that we have disowned that drives compulsive behavior and sabotages our efforts to correct our course. I have yet to meet a person struggling with one form of addiction or another who wasn’t actively pushing away fragments of their being or life experiences that they just couldn’t get their heart around.

Yes, we need to take steps to attend to the physically addictive elements in our behavior, but if we do not attend to the damaged parts of ourselves, we will once again see ourselves at the watering hole of self-hate and denial…and accordingly reverting back to whatever we do to numb ourselves out or push away pain. For years, and I mean YEARS, I struggled with an addiction to cigarettes. In fact, I was so good at quitting, that the physical withdrawal was a piece of cake for me. What drove me back time and time again were the emotions my smoking habit abated. It wasn’t until I was willing to really look at and embrace the part of me I was disowning that I was able to sincerely make peace with the addiction and put away the cigarettes for good (over ten years smoke-free, thank you very much). It has been the process of loving all parts of myself (my history, emotions, short-comings, genetics and the like) and the loving actions that I commit myself to, day-in and day-out, that has been instrumental in my ability to overcome.

I wish everyone well on whatever their path is to self-love and healing. We are all, indeed, worth it.
http://meaningfulmag.com/ G

Oh Mastin, it was soooo nice to read your post today.

People come in all shapes and sizes. If you’re putting in the footwork (good diet/enough exercise), which I think you are, then you’re at your ideal weight. And being at your ideal weight is something to celebrate!

If your ideal weight doesn’t match some idealized standard…get rid of the false standard, not the weight.

I spent 10+ years maintaining a “perfect” body. I worked out daily, I watched what I ate….and I went to bed hungry every single night. I spent so much time thinking about food & exercise when I could have been loving life and loving others.

Now I’m 15 pounds heavier, I look like a normal person, not a model, and my body is is happy. I know this because I breeze through 2-hour yoga classes, I sleep soundly, I have energy and I never get sick.

High five for those of us at our ideal weight. And thank God we come in different sizes. And don’t forget…this too shall pass.
Angelika Kerzakova

Dear Mastin,
I just wanted to say thank you for sharing ypur experience with the weight loss. I love the idea of staying suga free and I am actually thinking to implement it in my life a day – I am starting with 1-2 days per week, and during the other days I try to eat only a piece of dark chocolate. Sugar is also my life-long addicition and really do not like the idea of being addicted to anything.
And I will certainly try the moethod you hav shaed today – sending love to different parts of my body. I know that blaming and hating myself for all the weight I have is definitely not going to help me, but LOVE actually might.
http://kclanderson.com/ KCLAnderson (Karen)

I started blogging about this very subject back in 2009 and subsequently wrote a book (I know, me and everyone else ). Here’s what I have found to be true: if you don’t love yourself now, you certainly won’t love yourself when you’ve lost weight. Here’s something else I know to be true: change only happens when we accept and love what is, right now. When we resist, we’re basically in denial.
Amy

I love this post because this is what I discovered on my weight loss journey! I’ve lost twenty five pounds in about six months and one of my sayings was “you will never change what you don’t love.” The example I gave my friends about how this saying worked for me was a parallel to relationships. If you are in a relationship with someone you don’t like very much, or a relationship that is truly bad for you or making you unhappy…you aren’t going to put a lot of work into it. In fact, you’ll probably quit on it. However, if you are in a loving relationship that you are happy in and about, but you hit a rough patch, you are more likely to work hard to fix it because you love it. So, when it comes to body image, I realized that pictures of thin women weren’t going to motivate me to do more because they were making me HATE my body and what I looked like. I had to love myself first in order to want to work on it. Loved the post today and I’m so glad others are going to start loving themselves too!
Debbie

Mastin, I’ve actually never commented on a blog before. I saw you on Super Soul Sunday and subscribed to TDL then. I really enjoy it and I thank you for everything you do! One thing that has struck me over the last few months is how you talk about food, specifically your “cheat days” as I believe you call them. First off, I am a holistic nutrition counselor, so things like that perk my ears. But secondly, I just KNOW you believe in the power of the words we use, and what we say to ourselves. I’ve thought to myself when reading those things you’ve written on TDL….”what if Mastin called those PLEASURE days. Days/moments/bites that you got to really enjoy, savor, relish…and look forward to with excitement, not guilt, etc!” That’s a change of perspective, huh?! Anyway, if I did this correct and it actually finds you, much love and thanks again for all you do. If you want a professional recommendation from yours truly, please check out one of Marc David’s books…..Nourishing Wisdom or The Slow Down Diet. He is an awesome friend and mentor of mine, here in Boulder, CO! Debbie Steinbock http://www.wholenourishment.com
http://twitter.com/ErikaManifest Erika M

Hi Mastin! That’s awesome – congrats on getting back on the ball.
I’m no doctor, but neem really helps cravings (specially for sweets) and adya clarity too. Worked for me, the former sugar-addict xo
Kate

Have you cut out wheat and gluten? I just found out about a book called “Wheat Belly,” which points to today’s intensely genetically modified wheat (engineered for high yields) as a MAJOR factor in gaining weight as well as all kinds of other ailments. I’ve recently stopped eating wheat (and sugar) – I’ll let you know how it goes.
Kate

Also, I recently stuck a note in the middle of my bathroom mirror that says “I love my body!” I see it every time I get out of the shower. I borrowed the idea from a woman – I wish I could remember who – in a magazine interview a few months ago. It goes nicely with Louise Hay’s mirror exercise: looking in your own eyes in the mirror and saying “I love you!”
FitnessModelElite

I always tell my clients…”You got to get it right in the mind, BEFORE you can get it right in the body”. They work together like 2 wheels on a bicycle…..without the one wheel the bike is just not going to work…and you have describe it so well with your personal example in this blog above!
Neslyn

“love yourself” is an overused phrase and it’s getting on my nerve..
BUT the most effective way to kill insecurities! YEAH right! when you start to love yourself everything will just fall as you wanted them to be.. you bet!

Neslyn,
http://www.relationship-consciousness.webs.com
http://lunasealife.wordpress.com/ Michelle

Thank you, thank you, thank you Mastin, for sharing your insights! It’s so beautiful to re-member the truths we already know, to be re-minded of the messages our Higher Selves are always trying to beam down at us…..
Stromsup

Hey Mastin,
Becky Lu Jackson’s work has helped tremendously in my journey through and out of food addiction. “Dieting. a Dry Drunk” is the book title, she has a workbook that coincides with it.
Love and Light,
Pamela
Hjordan

Hi Mastin, I would love a concrete example of “sending love to yourself”. I’m sorry to be such a rock but I need very clear direction to make sure I’m doing it right!
Thank you, Hillary
Becky

Mastin,
Thank you so much for this amazing insight. You are so right. Everything comes down to self love. We try to blame other people, situations, and the world for things that go wrong in our lives, and the problem is that we are not looking within and appreciating the wonderful people we are. I love your emails everyday and I look forward to reading them. Thanks for keeping me on track!
Latrice

Thanks Mastin for this topic! I have hated my body for years and nothing has changed. I am on a journey to be different. I will turn 40 this summer and I do not want to think and act like I did as a child! It is so hard to break old habits! I have over eaten and drank alcohol to excess to numb the uncomfortable feelings. I am slowly, but surely learning to love myself!

Peace and Blessings!
Dorothy

I would love to know more about what exactly a sugar free diet entails??