Accepting Where We Are

Guess what?

The best way to improve your situation is to accept it.  Unconditionally.  Warts and all..

Counter intuitive?  May be but watch those who reject what is happening believing that rejecting the present is the best way to create positive change.  From experience, we can see that rejecting our perceived failures gives rise to pain (and an all-expenses paid one-way trip to the land of denial).

Trouble is, if we feel it is unacceptable to be overweight the truth, the actual facts, hurts.  A lot.  And yet many of us believe that kind of self-loathing to be motivational? 

If this is you, try this experiment:

·         Think of something you haven’t been able to do: lose weight for example

·         Now feel the anxiety of what  must be done to achieve the change and start to turn up the volume on that anxiety: fat thighs, rippling back fat, thick neck, stubby fingers and scream and shout for change: immediate, total permanent change, now: you want it, need it, it's not right what you have it's wrong and must be fixed (you get the idea)!

·         Notice what reaction this is having: are you  more or less wanting your comforts?  Do you feel more or less like eating are you feeling happy about yourself?

·         Now give yourself ten minutes out of life: release the anxiety, the stress about failing, self -abuse, non-acceptance and try for this ten minutes saying this is where I am, this is OK for these ten minutes I am being with who I am.  If judgments keep presenting themselves tell them to back off, we’re taking ten minutes here.  You can have them all back after the ten minutes but for now we are taking ten.

·         Feeling angry?  Feeling scared?  Feeling mean?  Accept where you are.  Identify what you are feeling and say hello, give yourself permission to feel what you are feeling and let it go. “It’s  okay to be cross”  “It’s okay to be sad” “It’s okay to cry” 

·         Notice now by accepting where you are (your outward truth, what’s real) and your inward truth (what you are feeling about it) how you are feeling about wanting that sweet treat wanting to go with the chocolate and biscuit answer.  And suddenly it's not so bad.

Accepting where we are frees up a lot of energy in a way that rejecting the truth and crawling back into denial does not.  And from that calm place we can take stock and chose something different. 

And we would start by actively choosing for paleo food.  Making this choice helps us withdraw from sugar and processed food which provides clarity and from that clearest point we can start to make a difference.

There are lots of recipes to follow on this site and on our facebook page where we post pictures of the food we have cooked and eaten with our kids.  Let you into a secret: it's the best fun.

Until next time..