Body image and reasons for the Whole30?

[BrianaDell]

Understand that you are worthy of love and being loved just as you are right now. I highly recommend reading Brene Brown's book "The Gifts of Imperfection"

I cannot second this recommendation enough. It IS the owner's manual to your relationship with yourself and others.

I recently realized behind my exterior goals of "doing this for my health" and "because I'm worth it" sort of positive reasons for working out and eating well there was always this lurking little gremlin saying "aaaand because you're fat, that squat weight was pathetic, and what is going on with those thighs?!" I'm so awesome because I don't stare at myself in the mirror and criticize when what was really happening is I was avoiding the mirror altogether bc I didn't want to look at myself. This has been going on for....ever and I seriously just realized it a few months ago.

Taking my before pictures was really hard for me because in trying to avoid criticizing myself, I just wanted to avoid looking at myself which in reality is just as damaging. I can't say that it was a wholly positive experience but I am trying to look at my body, its good parts and its other parts, as parts of me. I don't have to think they're awesome because that too is painting a picture of perfection which isn't true. Instead of trying to think my flaws aren't flaws, I am trying to learn to love myself wholly- flaws and all.

The Gifts of Imperfection and her newer book Daring Greatly have become my bibles. Everytime I am feeling anxious I flip to some highlighted section and read. I take a deep breath and say right now, in this moment, no matter what happens, I am enough.

[Coffeeandshoes]

(sorry this is so long, I'm "fat" by most people's standards, but I"m healthy, sexy and happy and I share my joy with everyone) (and I love whole30 because it helps people be their best.)

I'm also a 40 something who wore a bikini last summer. I got lots of complements. Was I the skinniest on the beach? no, that prize went to my friend who is naturally thin and has been given grief her whole life for it. She had a terrable body image even though she was beautiful. For about five years she has done cross fit and whole 30 and put on muscle and gained health and her beauty is more apparent than ever. But it is the inside beauty that is really awesome.

Almost all women have body image issues. Crazy but true. The body is just a package for the soul and spirit it encases.

I have a more positive body image now than I did 20 years ago when I was young. Why? because I chose to love my body, my curves, my stomach, my stretchmarks, my all. I had let the world's view of beauty and a couple bad men (ex husband) decide my worth.I decided a few years ago, I was beautiful, even though not perfect. I decided to cultivate joy with today, not obsession with a scale that can never be pleased. I threw out fashion and "beauty" magazines and celebrated the diverse beauty in the hearts of the women and men around me. (and yet I still struggled some days with "if I were only thin, or pretty, this would happen" and I struggled with the shame of not measuring up.

Yoga helped so much with this, and loving people and helping them made me more secure as a human.

when I decided to love myself and live each day with joy and give that joy to others, guess what? I lost fat go figure.

Whole30-- did help for a lot of reasons, and the changes in body fat ratio were so awesome. I have been on diets where I was 100 percent compliant and nothing happend. I think hormeones migth have been at play, who knows? But the Whole30 lifestyle whole package helps me be more beautiful. I'm in it for the long haul. On my 50th birthday in a few years, I'm going to have pictures made in a bikini and have it say, "this is the new face of 50" Shiny hair, smooth skin, sexy curves." Age is just a number and too many get hung up on it.

With Whole30 I think the true joy comes from mastering the appetite for junk and simply doing the program. If you focus on the doing, not the outcome, the outcome takes care of itself.

I think there is a reason for a more positive body image for women who do whole30. One, the whole30 isn't just tied to a scale number, its a whole package effect. Two, most of the women who do a whole30 do some sort of physical activity as well. and between the two, your body is happy and healthy and that affects the soul and spirit inside the body.

[amandagrace]

It is inspiring to read these quotes!! 2 years ago I was at my heaviest weight ever at 160lbs, in just 3 months of healthy eating I was back to a some what normal weight of 140lbs - but since then nothing has been helping and I have been hating myself for it. I work out religiously, I change up my work outs frequently to avoid plateau's and my body will not change. At the end of my first whole30 I was down to 135lbs but my goal is 125. I am desperately trying to get their before my wedding in July. I am so disappointed with myself, and how little change I have seen after that drop of 20lbs. I am five days in to my second whole30 and hoping that I will find someway to make a difference in 2013.

Any tips or suggestions would be much appreciated!! Xo, God bless.

[BrianaDell]

It is inspiring to read these quotes!! 2 years ago I was at my heaviest weight ever at 160lbs, in just 3 months of healthy eating I was back to a some what normal weight of 140lbs - but since then nothing has been helping and I have been hating myself for it. I work out religiously, I change up my work outs frequently to avoid plateau's and my body will not change. At the end of my first whole30 I was down to 135lbs but my goal is 125. I am desperately trying to get their before my wedding in July. I am so disappointed with myself, and how little change I have seen after that drop of 20lbs. I am five days in to my second whole30 and hoping that I will find someway to make a difference in 2013.

Any tips or suggestions would be much appreciated!! Xo, God bless.

Amanda-- You are so awesome! That is so great that you have lost weight in a healthy and nourishing way. I know this isn't what you're asking but one thing that I like about the paleo lifestyle and it's teachers is that it isn't meant to help us lose weight but to help us find health and sometimes that number doesn't match what we thought it would. On the Balanced Bites podcast, Diane and Liz are always talking about how sometimes that last 5 or 10 pounds is hard to lose because its the difference between health and disease. That those are the pounds that are keeping you vibrant, and fertile, and energetic. And that because of that often we paleo-livers weigh more than what society and magazine tell us we should weigh.

I don't know if you need to lose that last 10 lbs, but this is something I have to remember. I haven't been able to get below 135 despite my best efforts (those efforts did NOT include the whole30 until now so who knows) and I'm trying to teach myself that as long as I am finding health, my body will find its proper weight.

I'm sure you look fantastic!