On the road to weight loss there will be pitfalls and setbacks. Life will happen and weight loss will slow or begin to slowly creep up. In these times, when life is pushing your health goal priorities further down the list, it’s important to practice self-understanding. When our thoughts begin to turn negative toward ourselves, we run the risk of undoing all of our good efforts.

Try thinking about the thoughts you have when looking into the mirror or when stepping on the scale. Are they kind thoughts? For most people the answer would be “No”. People often say things about themselves that they would never say about someone else. You may think “I’ll never reach my goal weight”, “why do I even try”, or “I’m worthless”. You may do these things already and not even realize it. These thoughts have the potential to be carried with you throughout the day. We may begin to have lower self-esteem because we are feeding those negative, self-deprecating thoughts. 

Our thoughts can become our worst weight loss saboteurs. We may convince ourselves that there is no point in trying. But what would happen if you decided to speak to yourself the way you speak to those you love? You could give yourself forgiveness, love, and understanding. For some, this is a very difficult task. Speaking to yourself with love is something that requires practice.

Some ideas for increasing your self-love:

• Try placing positive messages on your bathroom mirror that you can reflect on each morning
• You could make a list of all of the things that you love about yourself and reflect on this list each day
• Any time you realize you are having a negative thought about yourself, you could try to replace it with a positive thought, possibly one of the positive thoughts you have written down

You may find that it is much easier to get back on track with your weight loss goals when you love yourself. Sometimes, setbacks happen but we are strong enough to pick ourselves back up and start again. Life can get messy and hard. It’s important to remember that you are worth it!