In fact, make a mental list right now. ‘I am free because….’ (Elevator music while you think about that for a few seconds. Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, ddodddooo doo.) Okay, times up. We’re guessing you may have listed some of the following: I am free because I have my health, I live at home, I pay my bills, I have a job, I live in a free country…all wonderful things to acknowledge. But one of the biggest things we all want to be free from is a five-letter word that packs a powerful punch in modern life: worry. And you may be a bit more free from that now than you realise.
Ah yes, worry. When over-obsessive reasoning results in yuck. We worry about so many things in life: money, our kids, our family, partner, career, housework, traffic, health. And weight. It seems strange that it can have such a hold over us but the thing about carrying weight is that it also carries a big punch when it comes to self-esteem. It makes us feel guilty that we are weak and can’t ‘control’ ourselves, that we are adversely affecting our own health, that we are no longer attractive or sexy or that we look and feel so much older.
One of our Super Staffers Mary-Anne puts it this way: Whenever I got stressed I would say to my poor, long-suffering husband a list of woes like this: ‘I’m so worried about (son), he won’t do his homework, and the oven is playing up again so I don’t know what to do about dinner now, meanwhile the mechanic says the car won’t pass rego the way it is, and the washing just won’t stop piling up and I’m too tired to do it…in fact I think I’m getting a cold and…and…and I’m fat.’ Always that was the final item on the rant and it was always the one that made me cry.
Excess weight is one of the biggest worries we experience, putting physical and emotional stress on our bodies, so one of the most wonderful benefits of losing it, once and for all, is that you are FREE from one of the items on the list. The one that makes some of us even cry. And why is that such a biggie emotionally? Because that weighing down holds us back when all we really want to do is fly. So, let’s see just what you are freeing yourself from:
Low self-esteem re appearance.
Example: Walking around the shopping centre endlessly searching for that outfit that will make you look thinner only to try frumpy things on, feel more depressed than ever, then run into your slim, gorgeous friend in the change rooms who complains the size 12 skinny jeans she just tried on are ‘too big’.
Instead? You’re now picking up that smaller size knowing it will fit, choosing things that aren’t simply expensive camouflage and strutting about in front of the mirror thinking the only thing that’s huge these days is your smile! 😊
Feeling old and ‘past it’.
Example: Getting dressed in the morning and wondering when your wardrobe became a closet of grandma fashion nightmares. Whatever you put on feels too tight or dowdy and you’re resigned to being the overweight chick for yet another day. You figure no-one will notice anyway. #feelinginvisible&old.
Instead? Getting dressed is fun! Every day is like playing with dolls when you were a kid only now you’re wearing the trendy, fun stuff (eat ya heart out Barbie) and everything looks good. Your wardrobe is newly colour-coded, and filled with gorgeous new outfits – it’s hard to even know what to choose. Feeling young and…um…actually a bit sexy. What the…? 😊
Social shame.
Example: Walking into the party and hiding behind your scarf, handbag, a glass of champas…anything to avoid your selfie-snapping friends and annoyingly still-hot ex-boyfriend from high school noticing how much weight you are carrying. Eventually you get a little tipsy from nerves and let your hair down on the dance floor to ABBA only to wake up the next day and see unflattering pics plastered across Facebook. You beg your BFF to say you don’t really look like that. She reassures you they’re just bad angles, all of them. You both know she’s lying.
Instead? You feel gooood. Your jeans are now skinny, the arms are bare and that ex-boyfriend is staring. A lot. Ha! Meanwhile, your girlfriends are all asking how you did it and complimenting your smoking outfit and you get pulled into all the selfies, and unbelievably, you don’t mind. You don’t mind looking at them the next day either. BFF calls to tell you how hot you looked. We love that girl!
‘Self-inflicted’ health issues.
Example: Going to the doctor because you have a sore knee and he a) weighs you – OMG! Those scales are broken, surely? B) tells you, actually tells you you need to lose weight or you will need a knee reconstruction. And he’d better check your blood pressure while you’re here. When’s the last time you had a diabetes check?
Instead? The doctor is checking the scales twice because you’ve lost so much weight since the last time he saw you but it’s only when he checks your now beautiful blood pressure that he cracks a smile. You can’t help smiling too when he looks you in the eye and says ‘well done.’ You’ve even got a little tear in there.
But probably the greatest moments of freedom of all are when you weigh yourself without fear, knowing you have complete control over your weight now. It’s no longer this huge worry at the end of your rant list that leaves you in tears. Instead? It’s one of the things in life that buoys you up because you don’t feel guilty anymore, you feel proud. And happy.
And without all those things weighing you down anymore you really can fly. And be free.