I Was Obsessed With My Weight For 20 Years. Heres How I Got Over It

I spent the first 20 years of my life obsessed with my weight. For so long, I genuinely believed that if I could just lose weight, I'd finally be happy and all my problems would be solved.

Deep down, I knew this wasn't the truth. I'd lost weight in the past and my problems were all still right there staring me in the face. More often than not, I'd find myself eating my way through my unhappiness and ending up right where I started.

When I decided to put an end to the diets and deprivation, my life changed forever. I made the conscious decision to accept my body exactly as it was, and everything began to shift. For the first time, I began to lose weight without struggling to do so and I've never looked back.

Here are some of the things I experienced that you can look forward to when you make the decision to stop believing weight loss will solve your problems and start your journey for the right reasons:

1. You become less stressed.

As you begin to see the perfection in your body and the amazing things it does for you on a daily basis, it becomes easier to relax in your skin. For me, when I immersed myself in my yoga practice, I started to realize there was a divine wisdom at work in my body. I began to appreciate this and realized my brain's obsession with changing my body was completely unwarranted. I stopped fighting with my body and learned to breathe in its perfection.

2. Your body chemistry begins to change.

When we're continually stressed about our weight, especially over a long period of time, our bodies begin to produce more cortisol (a hormone that slows down our metabolism during times of extended emergencies like famine). Not only does this lead to extra weight gain, but it also makes you more likely to overeat when you're surrounded by an abundance of food.

3. You're more in alignment with what you want.

If you're familiar with the law of attraction, you'll know that what you focus on becomes your reality. If you spend the majority of your time thinking about how you're overweight and can't fit into your favorite jeans anymore, chances are you'll stay stuck in that place as the universe gives you more of what you're focusing on.

If you shift your focus to the amazing things your body can do for you and align yourself with what it was you were hoping your weight loss would achieve in the first place (confidence, self love, etc.), you just might find that you begin to attract even more of that into your life, no matter your size or weight.

4. You start to want to eat the right foods.

When I finally began to love my body (and myself) unconditionally, I became more aware of what I was eating. Suddenly, the unhealthy foods I would have once eaten to unconsciously bury my unhappiness became a lot less appealing. I began to crave foods that would give me energy and leave me feeling good physically, and I became much more invested in learning about nutrition and how my food was sourced. I learned to read labels for quality, not for calories or carbs.

5. The need to lose weight disappears.

As you start to see the perfection of your body and begin eating foods that are in alignment with that higher perspective, the pressure to fit into a certain size may begin to vanish. For me, I stopped weighing myself all together. I realized that the number on the scale was just that — a number. Never again would I confuse my self worth with a number, no matter how high or low it was. As I started to feel more vibrant and alive, I found other things to focus on like finishing my degree and starting a business. Life became far too exciting to worry about something as trivial as weight.

The struggle to lose weight can be exhausting, but the reality is that it doesn't have to be so hard. Ditch the diet and the deprivation, focus on loving your body (and your life), and the rest will begin to fall into place.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

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