‘New Year, New You’ That’s what they say at this time of the year!  Shed the old you, break the old habits and overnight become the new improved version of yourself!  We’ve all done it, by December we decide that we now may as well abandon dieting until the new year to make the changes we need to in order to reach our weight loss goals.  It’s so easy to talk ourselves into it, the party season, social gatherings, the big day itself (Christmas) and of course New Year’s Eve all present to us opportunities to indulge ourselves to the fullest (and beyond!).  When I was on my weight loss journey the approach of the new year was a fantastic time because I gave myself permission to eat and drink whatever I liked for a number of reasons:

• It’s Christmas so I might as well enjoy myself
• There’s no point starting a new diet, I might as well wait for the New Year
• There’s too much temptation
• I have been denying myself all year, I deserve a treat

There are a whole lot of other self-bargaining tools I would use and the above are just a few!!  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that when I threw caution to the wind and let myself fully relax during the last month (or months!) of the year, I was just setting myself up for a fall.  Because I told myself it was a temporary relaxation of normal dieting rules, I made sure I used up my ‘food allowance’ to the max.  I would stuff myself at each and every event AND I would buy all the Christmas ‘treats’ for home.  Things such as tins of chocolates, mince pie, sausage rolls, party food were king at my house! 

The story has an inevitable ending though because come New Year’s Day, I would struggle to diet and so the yo-yo binge/starve cycle would begin for another year.  I was left constantly unhappy with myself and ended up stressed and frustrated as each diet began and ended horribly.  Don’t get me wrong, there were small pockets of relief where I would lose weight but it didn’t take much for me to gain it all back again. 

Then one year after more soul-searching, I finally opened my eyes to this relentless, year on year ritual and the futility of it.  I finally came to my senses and decided to end the ‘New Year, New Me’ mantra that I used to religiously believe in.  You know what? It worked and to this day, I have never imposed the self-induced pressure on myself at new year again!  I can tell you that it is a deliciously liberating feeling knowing I’m not joining the gym for five minutes or going on a calorie-controlled diet or for that matter anything of a rigid dieting regime at all.  How did I do this?

Self-Love is the only way to great change

I know it sounds corny, I know it sounds simplistic but please don’t knock it until you’ve tried it because the huge shift in my psyche from wanting to lose weight to loving myself brought with it a change to my entire life AND resulted in my not only losing weight but losing it for good!

Before I tell you why self-love works, let me tell you a few reasons why you shouldn’t make new year’s resolutions except to love yourself even more!:

• You unnecessarily apply pressure on yourself to leap from ‘bad’ to ‘good’ in an instant
• You feel ten times worse when you fail then you did without achieving your weight loss goal in the first place
• You get caught in a vicious cycle of binge/starve normally ending up gaining more weight than ever before

Why does self-love work?

Here are just a few reasons to get you started:

• When you love yourself, you think about what you eat – you will actually begin to look for food that nourishes you
• When you love yourself, you think exercise is great not torture
• When you love yourself, you release pressure and expectation – the fastest route to dieting failure

This simple act, if practised with persistence and perseverance will quite simply empower you to make changes to your life that are best for you.  Let me repeat that, changes that are best for you!!  When you do this, you will naturally and easily make choices that nourish your body and soul and ‘hey presto’ the results you begin to achieve are positive.  I therefore urge each and everyone of you reading this blog who want to lose weight; please shift your focus in this very instant from dieting to self-love.  Celebrate every new day as if it was a new year, learn to respect and love your body, learn to appreciate the power of you not someone else and release yourself to become the best possible version of yourself!!

Do not dismiss this advice unless you have tried it!

If you are serious about losing weight but fed up of dieting, please like and follow my blog for great advice and tips to help you finally lose weight for good!

You can also read my book, The Anti-Diet Lifestyle – 4 Crazy Steps to Weight-Loss Success! This book contains all my weight loss secrets in an easy to follow formula. It’s available on Amazon in paperback and E-Book. I am serious about helping you achieve your weight loss goals!!

Written by Sherry Taylor

Author of The Anti-Diet Lifestyle