My body after losing 200 lbs
My body once weighed 430 lbs.
Can you imagine?
Perhaps you can.
I understand if you can’t.
For typical people it’s unfathomable…
If you’ve been there you know all the secrets.
Hygiene was a challenge.
Relationships seemed impossible.
Clothes cost twice as much and stylish threads were hard to come by.
As a child, kids were cruel.
As an grown up, adults were ignorant. (and sometimes cruel)
I learned to cope.
I learned to manage.
I learned to love myself, find my motivation and change.
Now I’d like to give you the skinny on the extra skin.
There’s a lot of it.
It sags…
It ripples…
It rolls…
The stretch marks that used to bum me out are a distant afterthought now.
Think about how hard my skin had to work.
How it stretched beyond its job description and yet still did its job.
Imagine the pain it felt when being crammed into a seat in a theater.
For those of you who have been there I’ll say two words.
“Arm rests”
I realized the other day that for all the loving, accepting space I hold for clients as a life coach, my thoughts towards my new body are not always very loving or accepting.
Part of my personal work this year is about shifting perspectives on how I see my new body.
My body is not gross and my skin is not disgusting.
If I see it as those things what I’m really saying is “I’m gross” and “I’m disgusting”.
I’m not…
Neither are you…
How I am moving towards loving my body?
1. Giving thanks daily for one part of my body that served me well that day. It could be my hands on a guitar, my feet that got me from here to there or my heart that kept beating without me even thinking about it.
2. Eating really healthy, delicious food as an act of self love rather than a torturous chore.
3. Seeing my body as a dear friend. To be here for it and listen to what it has to say. To be trustworthy and to encourage it through thick and thin. (Pardon the pun) Like a true friend, to never give up on it.
I’ll close this piece with a quote from the great Leonard Cohen.
“Ring the bells that still can ring, forget your perfect offering, there’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”
May your seemingly broken places create passage ways for light to shine on your beauty and goodness.
To learn more about overcoming the challenge of change, check out my first book, co-authored with Brant Menswar. Click here for more information.
Jim Trick is a certified life & professional coach, passionate about working with individuals longing to live with greater freedom, fulfillment and success. For more information or to schedule a session email ThatLifeNow@gmail.com All sessions are held over the phone or video with people from all over the globe.