I'm not an expert nor am I trying to make you think of me as one. What I
want to do on this web page is have real talk about what I found out
regarding my self-image. We who are overweight or underweight sometimes
don’t look at ourselves honestly regarding our self-image. An outsider may
see us different than the image we try to portray because our self-image is
distorted.
The mind is really tricky. Whatever we feed it over and over again, we will
begin to believe regardless if it is true or not. If I am overweight and
feel unloved, too fat, can't fit my clothes, can't sit in chairs, thinking
people are staring at me, and so on, this can cause a negative self-image.
Sometimes to suppress our inward pain, we begin to think different about
what reality is, especially when it comes to being overweight.
How can I talk about this? Because when I started losing weight, I didn't
realize how fat or big I was. You know how I know that? Because when my skin
started sagging, I was devastated. I wondered what was going on in my body.
I would get up every morning or every night and exercise. I did it
religiously. I thought exercise was going to alleviate the excess skin on my
body. I talked to people about what I saw happening to my body, and they
looked at me as though I should understand the process. I have stretch marks
I didn't know I had. I had never even looked at my body completely, because
I didn't like the body that I lived in. What do you mean the body that you
lived in? I mean the place where we live is our body, spirit and soul – this
is Who We Are. Sometimes if we don't like ourselves, we tell our mind
something totally different than what it really is.
In reality, we have to stop lying to ourselves. We have to look at ourselves
honestly. Wow! For some of us this can be devastating. I couldn't believe
what was happening to my body. One night I was exercising and wondering why
the skin on my stomach was swinging in the wind. I mean literally swinging
from side to side. What was going on? Why was my body doing this? The answer
is because I had stretched my skin beyond what it was meant to be. A feeling
of freedom comes when we build our weight loss on the foundation of truth.
On the internet and television, they show people that have lost weight, and
how good they look after the weight loss. It shows them looking beautiful,
which it should, because losing any amount of weight takes courage. It shows
them looking like something out of a magazine with no flaws on their body.
It may be true, but guess what? I don't believe it because if you stretch
your skin, and lose a lot of weight, there is excess skin to be removed. If
they've lost a lot of weight, and never had skin removal surgery, the story
is really different. Losing a lot of weight and not have skin removal
surgery means your skin is going to sag and that's real self-image talk.
|
Power
Source |
“I think....you still have no idea. The effect you can have.”
― Suzanne
Collins, Mockingjay
|
Well Dorcas, why should I bother to lose weight if I'm going to look worse
than I did as a fat person? You know why? You do it for your health sake.
You’ve got to understand your body is are not built to carry all that excess
weight. Our poor Hearts. I wonder if they could talk what would they say.
But the heart is so faithful. It keeps on pumping and pumping as we keep on
eating and eating. Sometimes we don’t eat and starve our bodies, or throw-up
what we’ve eaten, or abuse laxatives in an effort to maintain a so called
positive self-image. Eventually, your heart will quit because of the
overload.
Our self-image is not only important to us, but we pretend to be someone we
are not for other people to love us based on what they see. We want them to
think that we are fine, but in reality what we are craving from others is a
positive response to our negative self-image. So we are never satisfied,
and for this reason we stay hungry for truth. This is real talk – this is
the Naked Truth. This is how we look when we stand in front of the mirror
of our mind and look at ourselves unclothed. I now realize that this is
what I did. I'm 61 years old, but I look like I'm in an 80 year old body
because of sagging skin. This is the foundation of truth.
We are meant to be victorious! I'll say it again, we are meant to be
victorious! We are meant to have a healthy self-image, healthy bodies,
healthy minds and healthy Spirits. That is who we are. Greatness is inside
of all of us, no matter what size we are. Our size is not Who We Are. Well
then, who are we Dorcas? We are our character; we are people of integrity;
we have dreams and visions and goals that reach beyond limitations. We
strive for excellence; we are people that can rise up, and once we get up,
we will help somebody else get up who is struggling with their weight or
body image. We win as we embrace the positive changes of a positive
self-image. Go and CELEBRATE CHANGE! You are worth it.
