Work on the Most Important Relationship in Your Life: The Relationship with yourself and your body.

Tomorrow is February 1st, meaning you've probably been bombarded with Valentine's paraphernalia for a while now. February 14th, Valentine's Day is seen as a day to celebrate a romantic relationship in your life.

The tv show Parks and Recreation deemed February 13th as Galentine's Day, a day to

celebrate your lady friends. Which I love to celebrate with my friends, and plan to do virtually this year! Interestingly enough, I also just found out that February 13th is also deemed to be the International Day of Self Love by Christine Arylo, an internationally recognized speaker and transformational teacher. In her words:

"The International Day of Self-Love serves to strengthen a person’s feeling of being loved, so that by February 14th they don’t need anyone else to give them love. Any love that shows up is extra. And they are so full of love that on February 14th they are able to give love to all the people they love, not just their romantic partner. When they’re filled up with love, and steeped in their Love Power, the loneliness and let-down just don’t show up."

It may sound really corny, but I love it. I believe that it is really difficult to give and receive love when you don't feel worthy of love.

So what does this have to do with nutrition? Right?

We tend to be so hard on ourselves. We look in the mirror and say terrible things to ourselves, things we would never say to anyone else. We judge our eating habits and movement so critically, we are never doing a good enough job. We sell ourselves short all the time. We don't see our own worth.

This sets us up to have a bad relationship with ourselves and our bodies. This then affects all the relationships we have with other people. Friendships, romantic relationships, coworkers, and employers. This also affects how we take care of ourselves. When we feel like crap we don't take very good care of ourselves. Right?

Guess what, you are not the problem. Diet culture is the problem. It has fed you all these lies about yourself and your body. Diet culture ties your health to your weight and wants to make you feel guilty for not eating perfectly or exercising enough. Diet culture wants to keep you feeling bad about your body so that it can make money off your many attempts to lose weight.

However, when we start to reject diet culture's version of health and realize we can work on our health without pursuing weight loss, we can learn how to respect ourselves and our bodies no matter what they look like. Eventually, our worth may not be tied to how we look anymore. When you feel good about yourself, you take better care of yourself, and then you can take better care of others.

So how can you start to work on this incredibly important relationship with yourself?

• Make a list of 5 things you like about yourself.

• Make a list of 5 things you appreciate about your body.

• Start catching negative body thoughts and instead think about something you appreciate that your body does for you

• Wear clothes that fit you right now and feel comfortable

• Feed your body regularly until it is satisfied

• Move your body in a way that feels good to you

• Rest when your body is tired

This February don't just focus on your relationships with others, work on improving your relationship with yourself and your body.

Would you like support in rejecting diet culture and improving your relationship with food and your body? Let's chat!

-Katie