I started my 100 pound weight loss journey not overly impressed with myself or my ability to lose weight, and I honestly hated myself. And I truly didn’t understand the concept of self love.  

Now I had one thing besides my family that I took pride in, and that was being successful in my career.  I was proud of the field I was in and my place in it.

But with regards to me, looking at myself in the mirror was incredibly painful.  I basically grossed myself out. The words in my head were mean and nasty, and I would go off plan and beat myself up for days…. I didn’t provide myself any form of unconditional self love.  Unfortunately, I reserved all the unconditional love for my kids and hubby.

This mental beating was this biggest issue in my consistent 100 pound weight loss.  It  caused me to go off track over and over throughout many years.

To overcome this I had to make some adjustments and learn to love me where I was.   This was the path to reaching my goals.

Overcoming this mental beating is what allowed me to successfully reach my 100 pound weight loss goal.

To get here I had to learn to love me where I was and stop beating myself up for being human.  If you are busy telling yourself all the horrible things you’re doing, how are you going to know when you’re doing something good?

Question… Do you praise yourself for the good times or just beat yourself up when you’re not perfect?  Where’s your focus?

What you focus on is what happens and it’s what you see.

Now this became a big deal, because I would go off track and then eat for days because I went off track once… so if this is you, listen up!

​Self Love Comes from Being Curious about Your 100 Pound Weight Loss

Are ya ready? 

The first step is being curious.  

It’s time to  figure out why you go off track initially.  For me, it was usually exposure, or coping with stress and anxiety.  In my case, I wasn’t skilled at navigating events where food was freely available, or dealing with life events.

Maybe you also eat to cope with life’s stresses, or your anxiety.

And let’s not forget eating because of anger, or sadness or even loneliness.

Finally a big one for me was, I used food to cope with these emotions instead of dealing with them.  I would eat because I messed up.

Taking time to invest in this step allows you to understand why you’re having issues with your 100 pound weight loss journey.  

Usually the question I get now is: “But how did you use self love to overcome and actually lose 120 pounds and keep it off?”  

We are going to talk about this over the next couple of sections.  ?

Use Self Love To Be Gentle to Yourself for Your 100 Pound Weight Loss

​Okay, so now I knew why, I was curious and I actually paid attention as I was going off track.  I journaled and watched what I was doing almost from afar…

In order to move past this, I needed to basically parent myself and figure out how to express my feelings

I know it sounds difficult, but picture parenting a 2 year old that accidentally spilt a glass of milk.

Being gentle with yourself is key, particularly if you are eating in response to emotions.  

Giving yourself gentle love as you figure out why and then teaching yourself a new way were the only way I could lose 100 pounds and keep it off.

How do you teach yourself? 

I did it by brainstorming options… I tried to come up with new ways to deal with my emotions.  I had conversations in my head and journaled about other ways I could deal with a specific situation.

To be honest… there isn’t a blanket solution.  Your solution for stress eating is going to be different than mine, but the process to find that solution is going to be the same…

One process is to journal options for the specific situation.

We spend a lot of time working on unique solutions to this in the 100 Pound Weight Loss Formula, my group coaching program for 100 pound weight loss.

Self Love in the Form ofGiving Yourself Grace for Your 100 Pound Weight Loss

Now let’s talk about one of the most important parts of the process.  ;) I figured out this growth process with trial and error, I had to give myself grace when I didn’t quite do perfect.

Guess what happened…

As I started giving myself grace for not being perfect I started losing weight.

Notice I didn’t say I stopped messing up and I started losing, because I continued to mess up and I still do.

But now when I don’t stick to my plan perfectly I stop and look at why. 

And then I start right where I am and I return to my plan.  I don’t eat for days, or starve myself because I ate extra handfuls of granola when I make my yogurt. 

I simply start my very next meal like nothing happened at all.

Giving yourself grace is a big part of self love.  This is the step that allows you to be human.

Let’s Close This Out…

Being curious, gently correcting your course and giving yourself grace are the 3 keys to 100 pound weight loss and then maintaining the loss after the fact.

I’m saying stop using your imperfection as an excuse to keep eating.  It’s an excuse. And don’t beat yourself up, when you aren’t perfect. These just keep you eating, and it’s causing the weight loss rollercoaster.

Are you using stress as an excuse to eat.  Are you then beating yourself up because you stress eat.  Do you follow this up with a ton of extra eating for days?

This is just one example I see all the time.  So instead get curious, gently teach yourself a new way and give yourself grace when you aren’t perfect.

These steps will allow you to implement self love on your weight loss journey instead of trying to bully yourself into losing weight.  (This doesn’t work BTW… I tried it MANY times)