My goal for the past three weeks has been to love and care for my body (...through Reiki, a new skill I've just begun to learn). And it has made a difference! I lost the last 4.5 stubborn pounds that I needed to lose to acheive my first weight goal (an overall loss of, oh, 30 lbs over the past five years). Caring for myself eliminated the emotional need for comfort food and increased my sensitivity to what my body really needs (food or water? fast-acting carbs or slowly digested ones? caffeine or a 15-minute break?). This week I was a little bit mad at my body, and gained it all back...
I adopted this strategy because I realized that I would over-focus on goals like working out at the gym or eating only a certain number of calories as overcompensation for feeling disempowered in other areas of my life. Then, when I started to feel more positive and in control regarding those areas of my life, I wouldn't feel the need to go to the gym or eat properly. As a different strategy, focusing on balance in all areas of my life has made weight loss and healthy eating a natural byproduct of happiness, not a route towards happiness.
I haven't been working out lately, but the funny thing is that it's one of the first times I've felt my body craving exercising, and yoga. I normally don't really want to be working out until I begin my workout. In fact, I normally don't really listen to anything my body tries to tell me. I suppose my daily check-in, where Intellectual Me walks up to Physical Me and says "What's up, dawg?" in my self-Reiki sessions has been integral in that. Yoga and martial arts had a similar effect, but I was always over-intellecutalizing the movements, which distracted me from getting in touch with my body. In Reiki, you're just laying there moving your hands over your head, your stomach, your feet, and zapping positive energy at yourself, so there's less distraction.
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