Why any amount of weight loss may just not feel enough...

"I definitely have body issues, but everybody does. When you come to the realization that everybody does — even the people that I consider flawless — then you can start to live with the way you are."- Taylor Swift

Have you ever set yourself a weight loss goal -really felt miserable restricting your food intake to get there - but then found, even at your goal weight, that you still aren't happy? You don't feel like it is quite ENOUGH yet... you feel the need to lose just a little bit more before you can feel good about yourself?

Or perhaps you are feeling unhappy about your weight right now and you think back to a time when you weighed less - thinking - I looked so good back then... but when you think about how you felt about your weight back then you realise that even then, you never felt good about your body or your weight. It almost doesn't matter how much you weigh - at any weight you are not happy with your body. You still feel that you have just that little bit more weight to lose...

When working with individuals that want to lose weight or change their relationship with food at our clinic, we often find that ... ULTIMATELY HOW THEY ARE FEELING, ISN'T ABOUT WEIGHT AT ALL. Certainly the thoughts that torture them day in and day out ARE about them needing to lose weight, needing to look "better", needing to change their appearance. It certainly seems as though their worries and thoughts relate to their weight. However, when we look at how they have felt about their body through their lives, we often discover that, whatever their weight was or is or has been - they have NEVER felt GOOD ENOUGH, they have never been able to truly accept, embrace and enjoy their bodies.

How they are feeling isn't REALLY to do with weight, it is much more to do with them being very harsh and critical of themselves (no matter what they weigh/look like, achieve professionally, do in their personal life etc). When someone tends to talk to themselves in a very unkind and critical way, they NEVER feel good about themselves - no matter what they do or look like. If you were to stop and tune in to that little voice that you use to talk to yourself daily in your own head - do you tend to be kind and compassionate to yourself or do you tend to be very unkind, harsh and mean? It is usually when someone is being very unkind to themselves and critical of themselves, that they trap themselves in a cycle of always feeling the need to change and yet still never feeling good enough, even if they do make changes in their lives.

Therefore, what often underlies someone's unhelpful relationship with food is actually a very poor body-image and self-image. When someone talks to themselves and coaches themselves in a harsh and unkind way, they will never really give themselves permission to JUST BE HAPPY.

When working with individuals in our clinic, we help them to nurture a more compassionate internal voice and to treat themselves with much more kindness and compassionate. Often when individuals get to this place, not only are they able to feel happier, but they also feel good about their body and their food choices because they naturally want to nourish, nurture and take care of themselves and their body. Instead of trying to punish themselves thin and never feeling good enough, we help them to love themselves to a place of wanting to nourish and nurture their mind and body.

If you would like some support in changing how you feel about yourself and your body and in turn to change your relationship with food, please get in touch at info@thefoodtherapyclinic.com to book in a 20 minute free consultation.

"I make a promise to myself to start appreciating what my body CAN do and stop focusing on what it can’t. I promise to stop analyzing every angle and every curve and every pound and every meal. I’m going to keep staying the path because it is a journey and as long as I’m always working towards my goals, one day I’ll reach them." - Carrie Underwood