The holidays are upon us and represent a time of joy, celebration, family tradition,
events, parties – and food! If you struggle with weight issues, the holidays are especially fearful. Another year is coming to a close and achieving your weight loss goals may not be a reality. Finding a solution to eat with ease and pleasure is a difficult task, because over-eating or eating all the wrong things is not about filling the stomach.
Where do your thoughts take you when you think about turkey, dressing, pumpkin pie or any of your wonderful, traditional holiday foods? When you think about holiday foods, how do you feel? Are you fearful about the possibility of going into the new year with a weight gain? Do you already feel guilty? Do you feel any freedom, peace and joy or are you in the prison of fearful, limiting thoughts?
Instead of a "fast" from holiday food, would you consider a "fast" from the limiting thoughts about yourself that you hold in your mind? No matter how much we want to believe that our poor food choices keep us from achieving our weight loss goals, when we are truthful with ourselves, we realize that our outer packaging is created by our inner programming. Our thoughts are creative and they produce results! The cause of excess weight is not about the food but about our thoughts about food.
What is eating (other than the function we undertake to nourish our bodies)? What is your personal experience with eating when you struggle with weight issues? Is there ever a mouthful of food you experience with the utmost joy, fulfillment and pleasure? Or do your thoughts take you to a place in your mind filled with dark clouds of self-judgment, self-criticism and guilt? Are your thoughts saying "I shouldn’t have eaten that" or "I should know better?" Our habitual dark clouds are the thoughts of worry, fear, anxiety and pain when faced with eating decisions. They are dark, heavy and keep us weighted down with the negative energy that becomes locked in our bodies. The constant worry over the food we choose to eat is our constant barrier to the peace of the present moment.
Eating joyfully and with pleasure is a gift – it is your right to enjoy eating. Eating is meant to be an expression of love for ourselves. Eating is an expression of caring for ourselves, of nourishing ourselves and loving ourselves. The self-abuse we place upon ourselves and the guilt we experience around eating are our mind’s constant companions. We have worked out for ourselves a program of "beating ourselves up" for being overweight, dieting in extreme pain and hating ourselves every time we eat.
It is time to create a new program of changing the limiting thoughts and feelings, because these thoughts and feelings are the energy mechanism holding onto fat. By letting go of excess weight in our minds and our hearts, the excess weight on our bodies will be released. When we judge, criticize and resent ourselves, we are limiting our sunshine. Who you already are is sunshine – the sunshine of love, peace, joy, certainty, courage and happiness. When you let go of self-pity, helplessness and the protection of the bulk of your body that has shielded you from past and present pain, you can render your limiting thoughts powerless.
This holiday season give yourself permission to know true joy in the experience of eating. Be the honored guest at every meal! Love yourself and give yourself the gift of peace with every eating experience you encounter. Eat with freedom, not abandon. Eat trusting yourself to know when your body, not your mind, is satisfied. Know that you are not weak, but strong and courageous. Know that you are not limited, but unlimited in what you can achieve.
This season awaken to your physical and spiritual beauty. Learn to love the self you are – and in taking that step, you will become the self you want to be.
