Happy weight has lots of meanings for me. Here is 1.
It refers to the position I’m in now. All my clothes being tight because I’d say I’ve put on a bit of weight (I’m guessing. I’ve not weighed myself in 3 years and that was for a check up). I call this happy weight. The last few months I’ve had lots of days on the couch with my boyfriend, watching the rugby and drinking pints of Guinness and eating take aways. It’s been CLASS! To feel ashamed or regret that or the weight gained from it would be so so ungrateful I can’t even fathom it.
Same goes for pregnancy weight gain, post pregnancy weight gain, a time of big meals with your family, all are very happy reasons to put on weight! Or if we used food as a crutch to help us or distract us from a very tough time, we could do worse! If the only problem we face this year is that we’ve tonnes of gorgeous foods around us all day everyday, we’ll be doing well.
Men and women typically deal with weight gain very differently. I’ve had female clients that can barely get the words out during their first consultation because they are crying so hard with the guilt and self loathing that they are overweight, frustrated with their metabolism etc . Male clients tend to rock in & say Hey! Sh*t got busy, I was eating and drinking a lot more than usual, but now that time is over , and I’m looking forward to feeling good! Their light attitude means the weight falls off them. They are not murdering their motivation and self belief by dwelling in constant judgment of themselves and their body š
In a negative mindset the first thing we’ll do when we suspect we’ve gained weight is to weigh ourselves to see the damage. Once we see the number then we’ll reeeallly hate ourselves & be extra negative about our bodyš”. Rather than seeing the weight gain as a cause (overeating) + effect (weight gain) We’ll have catastrophe thinking – If I gained this weight, that means I’ll probably gain more weightš± and before I know it I’ll be HUUUUUUUUUUGE! š
Little do we realise that all this negativity and freaking ourselves out is going to make emotional eating, comfort eating, binge eating a LOT more likely, and therefore make further weight gain more likely.
New mindset – Why would I weigh myself? I know I ate and drank more and gained weight. And so what!? I can accept the consequences of my actions without making it a bad thing or judging myself. As class as that time was there were also downsides, its no craic being tired all the time, tired because you’re overfed but undernourished, tired because your digestive system has been working almost non stopš„µ. It’s no craic to have puffy eyes. There’s a time and place for everything and what’s also enjoyable is feeling good energetic, healthy and strong. Letting our body get through the backlog by waiting for belly rumbles before we eat as often as we can, feeling lighter because of it, feeling leaner and stronger because of more exercise, sleeping better etc.
Letting weight wear off is a happy balance of accepting the consequences of your actions without judgement and addressing the needs of your body just 1 hour or half day at a time, without imposing definite rules.
xxx
