Body Hate

Why is it so easy to hate your body?

I’ve read some things that say to treat your inner self like a child.  You would never say statements like “you’re fat” or “gosh you’ve got rolls all over your tummy” to a defenseless little one, would you?  The obvious answer is no.  And for most it would be easy to concede that fact.  Most people treat children with a soft touch, only building up rather than breaking down.  (I know there is some controversy over whether that just makes children into poor losers or softies or whatever, but that’s beyond the scope of this train of thought.)  So what changes when we talk to ourselves?  Where do we get off speaking so negatively to our inner selves?

I suppose we figure we live in our bodies every day, we’re allowed to say whatever we want about them.  Kind of like how we live in our houses or apartments day in and day out so we have the right not to do the dishes, huh?  Right.  Well, what good comes from being so mean?  Do you feel better after you tear yourself down?  Or is it just easier to say something hurtful than to say something constructive?  I’ll admit, it sometimes feels much simpler to just say the same old yucky things to myself instead of taking the time to come up with something original, something nice, something positive about my body.

So, what would happen if we started talking nicely to ourselves?  Would we spend more time in front of the mirror, or less?  Would we find that the soft comments outweigh the harsh ones?  Would we find that we actually like it, that we prefer the good comments to the bad?  I venture to say we might.  How about we try it out?  The rest of this month, let’s all say at least one nice thing to ourselves for every negative one that comes to mind or crosses our lips.  I’m not saying it will be easy, and I know it will take more conscious thought, but I have high hopes that we’ll end up somewhere wonderful.

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I honestly don’t know where the weekend went.  Do you?  Some of mine was spent baking some delicious treats for the family I work for.  Gluten and sugar free cinnamon rolls anyone??

Also, just take a second to check out this picture of these two batches of chocolate chip cookies.  What a difference a newer oven makes!  The ones on the left are baked in the older model in the house and they’re sadly flat but the ones on the right are not only more golden but they are plump and delish too!

Anyways, just an interesting observation I made yesterday.  Today revolved around cancer patients.  I started off the day with a bowl of cottage cheese, plain nonfat yogurt, flax seed, white-flesh nectarine, and cinnamon.  I think I threw some plum in there too.

My whole morning was spent seeing cancer cases.  The appointments all ran long so I scarfed down a plum and some cheese in-between the first and second appointments because I was hungry.  Good thing I did too because we didn’t get a chance to sit down to lunch until almost 2p.  I ate the rest of the salad I had after church on Sunday.  We had a storytelling ministry meeting at a local Potbelly’s yesterday and I ordered the chickpea veggie salad.  I wasn’t super hungry so I gave up after only 10 bites.  Thankfully it was just as good the second time around (though this picture is from the table at the restaurant).

After my third patient of the day, I spent the remainder working on more case prep for Wednesday and Friday.  It’s about to be a big week in the clinic.  I ended up staying late at the office and Mitch drove me home.  When I got back I was really hungry despite it being 5ish in the evening.  I decided to go straight for dinner though I was all sorts of confused as to what I wanted.  Goat cheese, carbs, and sour cream all sounded good.  Random right?  My solution: cheddar & broccoli rice mixed with sour cream, Old Bay, and chicken sausage.  I also had a cinnamon & raisin English muffin smeared with lots of goat cheese.

The result was perfection.  I loved every bite and it satisfied everything I wanted.  Nomnom.  I then spent the rest of the evening reading up on myotonic dystrophy type one and cleaning out my DVR.  Now, though, I’m off to bed.  6am comes way too quick to comfort.  Sleep well group.  I hope your Tuesday is lining up to be a great one.

Questions: What did you crave for dinner tonight?
What is your “best cookie” secret?