This is a Life Practice.
Staying in touch with yourself, your feelings and what your body really needs is a practice. According to Google, the word practice literally means a repeated exercise in or performance of an activity or skill so as to acquire or maintain proficiency in it.
So much for the myth of perfection and the myth of auto-pilot weight control.
I get it.
I used to have dreams and visions of a time where I would get “there” and not have to think about my weight or what I ate any more. I, for some reason, thought that once I got to this mysterious Thinland, everything would be wonderful and perfect. I would be thin and happy, I wouldn’t have to exercise so hard or worry about what I ate all of the time and the rest of my issues would cease to exist.
Since being in touch with yourself and truly taking care of yourself is a life-long practice, you can relax. Take your time, really experiment with what feels good to your body. Don’t set up the expectation of getting this right. From day to day what you need in terms of food, movement and rest will change. That is why it is so important to get quite and start asking yourself what do I need right now? No one else can answer that for you. Not a diet, personal trainer or a fitness celebrity.
You are learning a new skill. It will take some time, trial and error, just like anything else you’ve attempted to do that was difficult, but it is very doable. You’ve got this.
Challenge:
Reflect on anything else you have worked hard to learn, earn or overcome. What thoughts and feelings carried you through? What helped you keep going when you wanted to quit?