Arrogance burns calories!
No, just joking; I'm totally with you -- so many people feverishly *trying* to lose weight and stressing out about diet and exercise, believing that when they reach some arbitrary goal, THEN they will feel good.
Why wait?
I think it goes along with the "common wisdom" that suffering now leads to ecstasy later ... someone even started a thread here recently about how swearing off pleasure leads to success. I think that's a sucker's bet. It makes a lot more sense to me practice feeling good NOW and keep getting better and better at it! In my experience, the more you feel good, the better you feel. It's an upward spiral.
Maybe it would be a good idea to learn
new ways of feeling good -- ones that work better -- if one is looking for different results. Eating coconut cream pie every day has a certain feel-good quality, and learning the joy of delicious, fresh, high-quality clean food provides another sort of feeling-good -- one that works better, in my experience, for feeling good now AND later. Taking a brisk walk or lifting weights, or playing volleyball, they have an entirely different sort of good-feel than laying around on the couch watching Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Both feel great, and it works really well to learn the balance that feels best for my body and mind now.
I love your quote: "Everything done lovingly succeeds." And sometimes treating yourself lovingly entails breaking through a certain amount of discomfort, but even discomfort can be a form of feeling good, amazingly enough -- if it's done lovingly. (As opposed to that old, 'I hate my body, I should get my fat butt up off this couch" approach.
)
Love is thought, and love is action, and love feels good.
Thanks for your post -- I am inspired.