I'm going to commit a spiritual faux pas here and I'm going to talk about weight loss!
In the spiritual community, we don't talk about weight loss much because we have this understanding that beauty comes from within and when you're truly aligned your body will exhibit itself the way that it's supposed to; what truly matters is how your body feels.
But in all honesty we need to be taking great care of our bodies (even from a weight perspective) so that we can host our wonderful soul. And to not take care of your physicality, which includes your weight would be bypassing an essential part of longevity and highly expressed alignment.
To me, taking care of my body means being healthy. And there's a whole bunch of different ways that one can interpret the word health but I'm going to talk about health in the terms of weight and body composition.
Recently, I experienced a significant increase in weight. Generally speaking we all have an idea of what a high or low weight might be for own bodies, especially if you're my age. Mine was at it's highest (outside of pregnancy weight). I would imagine that one would assume that I wasn't taking care of my body, but this was absolutely not the case. I was integrating movement, regular workouts, eating decently, experiencing good rest, but still had troubles with removing the excess weight.
This bothered me because 1. I wasn't experiencing my own body pleasurably, 2. I couldn't figure out the reasons for such a shift in my body and 3. I'm a self mastery coach!
Ultimately, what I really want is to be a good steward to this temple I've been gifted.
Prior to this experience, I was a competitive ice skater, I loved going to the gym and exercising, did body building competitions... so I had plenty of knowledge and experience on how to integrate movement, diet and exercise.
Fast forward to the 2019 pandemic, four years ago now. I had to stop training myself and clients in the gym that I was working at and transition to an online service based business, which went great, however, because of the limitations that were placed upon us as a society, I was not able to get outside as much I wanted to, admittedly made very poor diet choices occasionally, I didn't have my own personal trainer, and I lacked my own motivation (burn out) although I was still motivating others and I began to put on a lot of weight.
The weight I was putting on steadily accumulated over the next three years (a pound here and a pound there) and became equal to approximately a 15 lb gain above my average weight.
Before I knew it... my body was feeling the repercussions of this increase and I was no longer feeling good about myself and I certainly didn't feel good within my body; I carried a light depression for not looking like the fitness mogul I had always been. Additionally, I started wearing stretchy and loose clothing (this is a lifestyle choice now) and started wondering if clothing sizes where shrinking (denial). The good part is I deeply integrated the lesson of self acceptance and self love with my new body.
But...I began to experience extreme body aches and fatigue.
I then applied all the tactics I knew to achieve weight loss, and none of it really worked for me the way that it used to.
I recall going to my doctors office and she dismissed my concerns and stated that I was fine and at my age, I should expect an increased weight gain.
In my heart that my doctor was wrong. As a part-time personal trainer, I have witnessed the possibility of not only being able to maintain and lose weight well past your forties but also achieve beautiful results from nutrition and exercise when it's done right.
So why was I, a personally trainer, wellness expert and self mastery coach, not able to make my own improvements?
I was dumb founded (and a little embarrassed) for what felt like forever.
So here I am, still in my loving acceptance mode, beginning to shift my focus and continuing to do what I had learned, taught and experienced up until I took this trip to Mount Shasta.
I had this beautiful solo camping experience out in the forest where I grounded for three nights, drank fresh spring water, hiked, communed with nature, served myself plant medicine and tended to my prayers. And by the end of this trip, I began to receive intuitive information about my diet and lifestyle that would ignite my journey back to health.
It turns out that at different stages of our lives, our bodies are either more or less capable of processing certain foods and tolerating certain exercises and my body and hormones had completely shifted, yet my fitness, diet and lifestyle hadn't!
I immediately began to integrate the lifestyle changes that I intuitively received from my 3 night journey and my body happily released 15 lbs over the next 20 days. Almost 1lb a day!!!!
It felt like a MIRACLE!
I wanted to share this story to hopefully inspire you and tell you that there's still hope to achieve your weight loss, physical or health goals. If you're settling for less within your body, maybe your body is just ready for something different or a period of rest. And although choosing different approaches can be hard, it's doable.
If I can do it, so can you!
At the end of the day and by the end of our life journey, what's important is that you feel good about your body and that you're not feeling unnecessarily constrained or restricted within your body (your temple). Ideally you'll feel optimal always! And I'd like to give you hope that IT'S POSSIBLE.
I'd also like to recognize that much of what let go and released along with my physical weight was the emotional weight, specifically around forgiveness.
We often don't link our body image to our emotions but how we're doing on the inside is "often" a reflection of what's being shown on the outside and being able to recognize, tap into and process your emotions can have a profound effect on your physical body.
YOUR TEMPLE IS DESERVING OF BEING HONORED.
You have permission to be okay with wanting to lose excess weight or to be in better shape.
You have permission to feel safe in your body and to seek someone who can support you in that endeavor.
As a Self Mastery Coach, I specialize in life, spiritual and death conversations which includes wellness, online physical training and Shamanic medicine work. My clients have seen great improvements with my services and out of the box approaches. Click here if you'd like a consultation.