My little Emily was six years old when she picked up her daddy’s camera and snapped a photo of me in a swimsuit.
“Look, mommy,” she said proudly, showing me her work of art.
I looked at the image and wanted to delete it, immediately. It literally made me feel sick.
I was 35 pounds over my natural weight, and my inner mean-girl would NOT shut up about it.
"Lazy slob!" "You'll never look good again!" "Cottage cheese ass!” “Your husband didn’t sign up for this…”
The barrage of ugly thoughts was almost too much to bear.
I was a brand-new life coach, and yet, I was still a slave to my own negative self-talk.
I was lucky, though, because a wise teacher was about to swoop into my life & shake up everything I thought was true about weight loss. Her name was Brooke.
These days, we’re friends and business collaborators.
But back then? She wasn’t my girlfriend. She was my coach. And through my work with her, I arrived at a question that transformed my life.
When I was deciding what to eat for breakfast in the morning, I asked myself, “Susan, what kind of food feels most like love?”
When I was deciding which bed sheets to buy (the nice soft ones, or the cheap scratchy ones?) I asked myself, “Susan, which ones feel most like love?”
When I was feeling stressed & craving some kind of distraction or release (a walk? a dance break? a pint of ice cream?) I asked myself, “Susan, which choice feels most like love?”
By choosing love, again and again, as often as I possibly could … the weight melted away. Permanently.
I didn’t just create a new body. I discovered an entirely new way of treating myself, talking to myself and taking care of myself … which, in turn, gave me even more strength and energy to take care of others.
When people say that “love changes everything,” this is what they mean.
I know that love will change you.
Just like it changed me.
Susan
PS. What’s the next decision that you need to make — about your business, your family, your home, how to spend the afternoon, or what to put in your body?
What feels most like love?
