Years of Battling Food and Body Image Can Be Your Greatest Asset

The most inspiring stories of success and growth that lift people up and give them hope for something greater always come from the lessons learned to overcome a struggle or long fought battle with an inner demon. Transformation, a hero’s journey, is created when something you did not think was possible for you has now become possible. As a dietitian, I have specialized in eating disorders and body image negativity of many forms from yo-yo dieting to binge eating because I understand the internal battle with the all or nothing mindset. When you begin to honor your struggle, you finally learn the lessons to prepare you for the impact you know you were meant to make in this world. The skills you will learn as you heal your relationship with food and body image are going to be those which help you create a purpose and vision for your life that will keep you inspired and fulfilled each and every day in staying healthy and free from the food chaos. Here are five secrets to turning years of food struggle into a purpose with profit.

Smash the Scale

Smash the scale is something I literally love encouraging women to do when it is time to focus on mental, physical, and spiritual health over the number on a scale. It is also the symbol to go all in. When you decide to free yourself from the battle with food and weight you can’t dip your toes in the pool and tell yourself you will test it out. You need to take a cannonball into the deep end and have faith in the process. You get what you give with anything in life and this first secret means that you are embracing who you are becoming and letting go of who you were. Having complete faith that there is a better way and you were meant to help other women through your work will keep you invested in yourself and the mission on tougher days. If you don’t commit when something feels like a failure you will run and blame the system returning to old patterns that no longer serve you. You know this is not how your life is meant to end up.

Honor the Struggle to Make an Impact

You are starting with a food story. As you work to change your food story you will learn lessons along the way. You will start to see things in a new light and move away from old beliefs. Honoring the struggle means you record your story along the way. You may not share it immediately but as you create your vision and the impact you want to make on people moving forward these stories will be priceless. The struggle that you once hid from and felt ashamed by is going to become your greatest asset. As you grow in confidence and begin to see how much more you are capable of, you may forget what it felt like to be so stuck and scared. Those stories will give someone at home praying for a solution hope. They will remind you of how far you have come when you question if things have changed. They will make you relatable and a magnet for those you are meant to serve.

One Stop Shop

Here is what is not an option anymore. Thinking you need to solve everything one issue at a time, baby step after baby step, and never feeling excited over the progress. Exhausting all your money to make everything perfect only to wake up wondering what has really change.  Trying to DIY everything yourself and taking years to get off the ground when things around you change so quickly. When you build your vision and business as you are healing your relationship with food and body, it creates so many benefits but it is important to not overcomplicate it. It allows you to see how solving one major struggle can help in so many areas. It gives you purpose and fulfillment to take hard leaps. It will make you a better listener and more inspired to treat your customers with love. It will also save you time and money. Often when the food fog lifts, women discover dreams and desires they long forgot about but going after them can go from excitement to retriggering food struggles so why address them separately.

Make It An Experience

When we think of change, things like baby steps, overwhelm, lack of time or exhausting come to mind. It is easy to get excited, harness our energy, make big commitments, then feel the pain of change and battling our inner voice. This can lead us to make excuses and return to old patterns. I am ready for a nap just thinking of it. When we make it an experience, true transformation occurs. Instead of little benefits, we reap huge rewards. Why carry the pain along with little benefit when you can fail faster and succeed with more fun and support. When you gift yourself an experience, you fall in love with the best version of you. You will start receiving so you can give even more. You start to let life be fun and easy maybe for the first time. When you feel supported then you will serve at a higher level.

Invest in Professional Mentoring

Gathering information leaves you overwhelmed and tackling piece by piece all on your own. This is a recipe for disaster if you want to handle your mindset while you DIY something you have not overcome for years. An experienced coach who has walked the path you desire can lead you away from judgment as you navigate landmines you did not even know could exist. Your own voice will grow stronger as you trust yourself more, but in the beginning, having a voice you trust to guide you shortens the learning curve significantly.