When you think about your body, what comes to mind? Is it something you feel at odds with? Or do you see your body as the beautiful vehicle that gets you through life? Is it something you LOVE and take care of on the daily?
I hope that you already have positive feelings toward your body, but if not, I get it. Building and maintaining that relationship is HARD. So many of us have a love/hate relationship with our bodies that includes:
- How we look.
- Trying to mold ourselves into a different shape.
- Or feeling like we wish we had a different body entirely.
At the same time, we are grateful that we wake up daily in our bodies, and that our heart is beating. These feelings are common for women – and there’s nothing wrong with you if you feel both, or neither, or one or the other.
But what if we could reframe how we see our bodies? What if you could teach yourself how to love your body the way you love your fave people in this world? This is what I’ve taught myself to do, and I work at it every day.
Yes – we CAN create our own ideal bodies.
Check out these 5 practical steps you can take to give your body everything it needs to support you.
Here’s what you can do to learn how to love your body.
PS: Check out my own personal fountain of youth from my fave wellness brand, doTERRA, this page I set up for you or drop the word REVERSE on any of my socials.
How to Love Your Body
As someone who’s had her fair share of ups and downs with her body, not to mention body image issues, I can tell you that reframing how we see ourselves—and our bodies—is a HUGE mindset shift and super difficult.
After all, there are MANY components that actually influence how our bodies show up physically. The truth is, getting yourself to a better physical place goes way deeper than burning calories or going to your favorite pilates class.
It’s about your relationship with your body and ensuring you’re doing what your unique body makeup needs, not what you see on the latest TikTok trends or blindly following what other people have told you works for them.
If you have an unhealthy relationship with your body, it’s pretty damn impossible for your body itself to be healthy.
So let’s reframe all this. YOUR ideal body isn’t what other people say looks good. Your ideal body is the body that feels good to YOU. Learning how to love your body means you’re in touch, listening, and giving your body what it needs.
Sounds easy, right? Not so much. Taking steps to get YOUR ideal body means:
A) Loving your body – right now, no matter what shape it’s in, and
B) Loving your body enough that you actually take care of it.
Staying on track with a healthy lifestyle is absolutely mandatory in my book - which leads us right into Tip 1.
Tip 1: Listen to Your Body
How often do you actually listen to your body? Like, if you know that eating a big bag of Doritos (or chickpea snacks for that matter) is going to make you feel sick or weighed down, do you swap it out for a better snack instead?
If you know that having that second glass of wine or third cup of coffee (or bottle of Gatorade with all that sugar) is gonna give you a gnarly headache, do you consciously make a different choice?
We need to recognize the signs our bodies give us and listen to them, just like anything else in life. For example, if you know your bestie hates Bruno Mars, you wouldn’t blast his new album with her in the car, would you?
Well, maybe you would if you’re THAT friend. In which case, we see and love you.
Most of us would respect that message and stop doing something that caused harm or discomfort. It may be a silly example, but the point is that you should treat your body like you would treat your treasured bestie.
Pay attention to the messages and respect them.
Tip 2: Focus on Gut Health
My next tip to create the ideal body for YOU is to focus on gut health. Scientists are learning that there’s a second brain inside the gut. It’s the literal engine of EVERYTHING going on inside our bodies – including mental health.
The other day during an Instagram Live, I completely blanked out on a certain word I was looking for. You know how it goes – you KNOW you know the word but your brain is like nope, does not compute.
I learned that memory is often impacted by your gut. I know it’s not the sexiest topic, but gut health is actually super important for your whole body, not to mention your mind and your emotions.
The Gut-Brain Axis
Your gut’s main job is to separate nutrients from toxins, basically stripping out things your body doesn’t need and keeping what it does. If your gut is healthy, it pushes those toxins and leftover bits out of your system to the right organs that process them.
If you have a weak gut lining, it can become porous. Then those toxins can leak out of your digestive tract and straight to your brain – as well as the rest of your body.
(Did you get a mental picture? SO GROSS).
But that’s what happens! This phenomenon called “leaky gut/leaky brain” has shown a connection between gut health and things like:
- Brain fog.
- Impaired memory and recall.
- Anxiety and depression.
- Even serious conditions like dementia and Alzheimers.
Now here’s the good news: this gut-connection means you can literally improve every single system inside your body by improving your gut function.
There are tons of ways to do this naturally through lifestyle AND diet.
Tip 3: Meal Prep
Meal prepping involves choosing and making meals in advance and parsing them out into multiple servings. You can refrigerate or freeze any extras.
Prepping your meals ahead of time lets you consciously decide what to feed your body, instead of grabbing whatever is right in front of you or snacking because you waited too long to eat and now you just want something fast.
Meal prep will also help you avoid cravings and impulse eating. Plus, it’s a great strategy to stay on track with any nutrient-related goals you have. For me, it wasn’t until I realized that for me to not feel like shit every day shifting my approach to food was required.
As in going plant-based and doing intermittent fasting. When I don’t do these things, my body rebels.
I have a very sensitive digestive system and if I don’t eat a certain way, or if I eat foods I know don’t resonate with my unique internal chemistry and makeup, I feel crazy sick. Like, fetal position, clenching my belly levels of pain and discomfort.
Keep in mind that I’m not suggesting you follow my regimen. I’m just suggesting you follow your intuition… and your gut. If you recognize you’ve got some habits about what kind of fuel you put into your body and they aren’t optimal, meal prepping is a great option.
What if You Hate Cooking?
Now, I’m not a cooker. I don’t enjoy cooking. There are just other ways I’d like to spend my time. So, I started asking around my community for some vegan chefs in the area who could help me with meal prep and delivery for the week. It’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
It’s not much more expensive than doing the grocery shopping each week and it’s definitely cheaper than takeout, not to mention healthier. If this isn’t a financial option for you, start small with prepping a few simple meals a week and try to work your way up.
Tip 4: Learn the Importance of Supplementation
What do I credit with being able to run multiple businesses, travel as much as I do, AND be present with my family?
My supplements. I take about 20 supplements a day in addition to my monthly IV vitamin therapy which helps me intravenously absorb the nutrients I can’t absorb digestively.
Right now, my fav supplementation system is MetaPWR, which has ingredients like NAD, NMN, collagen, and resveratrol. That’s amazing because up until now, collagen has been incredibly difficult for the body to take in and process when ingested.
But MetaPWR is actually 12 times MORE bioavailable than other collagen powders on the market. This combo of NMN, NAD, and collagen has been shown to:
- Help reverse premature aging – at a cellular level.
- Eliminate inflammation.
- Release stubborn weight.
- Support natural energy production – again, at a cellular level (AKA your mitochondria).
- PLUS keeps skin naturally elastic, plump, and glowing.
Tip 5: Acknowledge the Connection Between Mind, Body, and Emotions
A few months ago, I went through an intense leadership training program. One night we were all sitting around sharing things we’d never shared before, even though we were really good friends.
For most of my life, people have told me I can come across as intense. Or unapproachable. Or even elitist – which isn’t my intention at all. I’ve actually held myself back from saying what’s on my heart because I didn’t want to be perceived a certain way.
But I realized I was literally carrying weight inside my body because I was carrying emotions inside of me.
I began sharing, getting things off my chest, opening myself up, and being more authentically me. I stopped dimming my shine to please other people, or make them more comfortable. Once I opened up, 7 pounds slid off my body and I didn’t even try. Not only did I feel physically lighter, my soul was lighter.
I share this because if you are carrying around stubborn weight that doesn’t seem to go away, no matter how many calories you cut or how many hours you spend on the treadmill or Peloton or whatever you’re doing.
Look inside.
- Is there heaviness inside of you?
- How can you lessen that load?
Say what you need to say. Release the weight inside of you. And the physical changes will follow.
Your ideal body starts from within. If you haven’t yet, definitely give your body what it needs at a cellular level.
Like with MetaPWR. The system I’ve been talking about for forever. If you, too, are on a journey to discover YOUR ideal body, I’ve created a special page all about it for you – which is
www.yourwholelifestyle.com/meta.