This morning I was flipping through a copy of Body and Soul magazine. I started reading an article called “Feel your Best -- 17 most trusted names integrative health give their top advice for preventing illness, revving up energy, easing stress and more“. The number one tip is LISTEN TO YOUR BODY!

The quote I love is “Our bodies are talking to us all of the time, but unless we make an effort to listen, we don’t hear them until they scream” --Tracy Gaudet, M.D.

This is one of the most true statements I have heard in a long time. This can be true for disease (ignore your stress levels and eat poorly -- you know this is going on but don’t make changes until your doc puts you on blood pressure meds). But is can also be true for our weight.

No matter how overweight a person is, at one point they were only 5 pounds overweight. Five pounds is a body speaking softly -- it tends to get ignored -- we buy new pants, etc. As the weight increases, that is the body speaking more loudly that we should do something our overeating. If this non-listening habit keeps up, their weight keeps going up and people develop achy joints, low energy, frustration with the way their body is feeling. -- what can we do about this???

We can start doing (or renew our efforts at) listening to our bodies!
Here is the cool thing. As we start listening to our bodies and the weight starts (slowly) coming off -- we start listening harder. Let’s say a person needs to lose 100 pounds -- not an uncommon situation these days. As I weigh that client in each week, maybe only 1 or 2 pounds are lost during that time. Maybe some weeks it is only a ½ pound. People get overwhelmed at the slowness of the process -- they look at the big picture (100 pounds) and see that they have only lost a small amount of that and want to discount their progress.

Why discount it? Why not celebrate it?? Yes… I know…. if a person has a 100 pounds to lose and they just lost 1 they still have 99 to go. BUT…They are starting to make changes and heading in the right direction. If you can eat REAL food that you ENJOY, live your life and still lose weight -- slowly but sustainably -- Why not celebrate?

Life does not wait for us to get to the weight we feel we “should” be. We won’t hit a certain number on the scale and POOF! We are successful, rich, beautiful and fully confident -- weight does not make this happen.

Start living your life right now. Start listening to your body right now. Really -- right now -- take a minute and see what you can learn by listening. Are you physically hungry? Do you feel full? Are your shoulders or back tense with stress? Do you feel at ease and rested? What has your body been quietly telling you?

Once you start listening, you can act on the information. Plan to get some sleep if you feel tired. Plan to take a walk at lunch if you are feeling stressed in the office. Get up and get a glass of water if you are thirsty. Listen and then take small, positive actions to remedy what you become aware of. You don’t need to change everything at once -- just start listening.