Treating ourselves kindly can be hard. Sometimes the diet is the easy part!
But poor self-esteem and low confidence can affect every area of our lives- from self-worth to eating habits.
Loving ourselves is SO important and we’ve got to work at it!
That’s why I wanted to share some of my favorite self-love resources with you.
Self-Love
Self-love is an interesting concept. Why does it seem so much easier to love others and give them affection than it is to love ourselves?
As women, we tend to walk around mentally beating ourselves up over the TINIEST THINGS.
It’s not fair. It isn’t right. And we’ve got to stop it.
I beat myself up for years before I finally figured this out.
My process of learning to love myself and the lessons I encountered were some of what inspired me to write my book, Sexy By Nature (find it here).
In that process, I read several other books like Smile Across Your Heart: The Process of Building Self-Love (find it here) where I learned concretely how to build an attitude of self-love, even when my mind wanted to work against me.
Sue Thoelle’s The Courage to Be Yourself: A Woman’s Guide to Emotional Strength and Self-Esteem (find it on Amazon here) taught me the value of courage, and how important it is for embracing who we are and living that out in the real world.
Emotional Eating
But what about our relationship with food?
Sometimes we use food as a way to stuff our feelings, find a sense of control, and search for acceptance and love.
If binge and restrict dieting or emotional eating have taken over your life, there are several LIFE CHANGING books that can help you.
If food has become your replacement for love, the very insightful Geneen Roth is the best place to start. Her original When Food is Love (find it on Amazon here) is one of my favorite books.
It helped me understand the deepest wounds within my soul that were being acted out on my dinner plate.
Breaking Free from Emotional Eating (find it here) is another classic from her and Why Weight? A Workbook for Ending Compulsive Eating (found here) gave me the practical tools to help put an end to my emotional eating roller coaster.
If you need daily support, Food For Thought: Daily Meditations for Emotional Eaters (find it here) is perfect for a small little gem of self-love and healing everyday.
My good friend Summer Innanen offers the 21 Step Body Image Remix which is an absolutely wonderful, hilarious resource for anyone who is looking to overcome body image issues related to emotional eating with a sense of humor!
She’ll take you through 21 days of learning to kick ass and get to a place where you can ditch your scale! And I promise, it will actually be FUN!
(PS. You get a version of this awesome program FREE when you buy Weight Loss Unlocked!)
((Find the 21 Step Body Image Remix here and Weight Loss Unlocked here))
All of these resources are a beautiful support for any woman overcoming emotional eating.
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If self-love is a struggle for you, I urge you to read some of these books. Words can’t express how much they’ve helped me personally.
Always Remember:
You are IMPORTANT, FABULOUS, BEAUTIFUL, and VALUABLE!
Don’t let anyone, including yourself, tell you differently.
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What are your favorite self-love resources? Have you read any of these? Share your insights into self-love in the comments below!
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This is so true. We all are IMPORTANT, FABULOUS, BEAUTIFUL, and VALUABLE!
Very good blogpost, thank you. In response to your question:
The first thing I did was get rid of television; I had cable. I watch commercial-free netflix and amazon prime when I’m not reading, mostly movies and documentaries, but there are tv serials there, too. Now, I never see advertising that says I must have or do or buy x y z in order to be beautiful and/or be happy. I, and only myself, now decide what I want to have, do, or be in order to be what I believe is beautiful for me and happy for me. This took me a very long way, but my journey wasn’t even near “the land of completion” (and I’m still camping on the outskirts) until:
I read “Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It” by Kamal Ravikant. Before I read this I was trying hard to love me and everybody and everything in a healthy way, and to extend my innate tendency to have a positive attitude, but I still continued to have to try really hard sometimes to not have negative thoughts about myself, other people, and situations. I read this book, and immediately with the first day of the three practices outlined in the book, I began loving myself the way God/god/gods/the universe/higher power/creator/or whatever you believe a higher power to be–loves me, purely and simply just because I exist and without reservation and because of & in spite of any flaws perceived by me or others. The feeling is very pure and very simple. That day, and for every day since, I look at other people and, because I feel love for myself and therefore great peace, I also feel a natural easy love and kindness for others, even the people whom I choose not to be around because it’s not healthy emotionally or physically for me to be around them.
I discovered that living, doing, being, & loving others is so much more simple and easy when I completely and simply love myself first. This is so very hard to put into words and accurately describe, so I recommend and hope that everyone will read this little book that explains so much better than I can.
Thanks again for all your posts, Stefani, and keep up the good work!
Thank you Stefanie! I just ordered two of your book recommendations. I have reached a point in life where it is time to start believing in myself. I have done so much work in developing self care and having a healthy relationship with food, it is now time to let more love in! Keep up the fantastic work!
Incredible resources, and major kudos for the emotional eating specific links. I generally trust your recommendations anyway, but the mention of Summer Innanen’s work solidifies it!