Trying to Get a Better Version of You?
The answer isn’t necessarily food.
Author: be well™ with Big Y® Registered Dietitian Team
Sometimes getting to a "healthier" you has very little, if anything, to do with food & exercise.
You look in the mirror and you’re unsatisfied with what you see. Maybe you think you’re carrying too many pounds or need to gain weight.
You decide to “get on a plan” and start exercising and eating right. Part of your plan has you meeting with a trainer at the local gym and a nutritionist. You work hard for weeks and you see some results, but they’re not coming fast enough. You peruse blogs and online articles to glean the best workouts to do and which foods to cut that could be holding you back from your goals. You’ve now pieced together a new plan with parts from the trainer, the nutritionist and online articles.
As you continue working though the ultimate version of “you,” it may start to feel like a goal much too far away to attain. Why? The answer may be a bit more personal than you think.
Feeling inherently worthy of love, no matter what you do or what you look like, is at the foundation of feeling complete and whole. Until you cultivate a loving and accepting relationship with yourself, you will continue searching outside of you for ways to be “fixed.”
What to do? Stop, take a breath, step back and start becoming aware of how you truly feel about yourself deep down inside. You may not come to the answer immediately, but when you do, it won’t necessarily change how you feel.
Once you learn what is at the root of your aspirations to be “better,” though, you won’t unlearn it. It will help bring you closer to the place where life-changing work begins—because, ultimately, you are worthy just the way you are.
The goal is a healthier relationship with your body for years to come—not a different version of you. The path is built by practicing self-compassion without judgment—not by following the perfect training regimen or diet.
Published 3/3/2021