Do You Hate Yourself?

I stumbled across a girl’s blog at a random website who has been trying to lose weight. Had I counseled her in weight-loss, there would have been some other things I would have wanted to cover first before she began starving herself!

She listed what her average meal was like. It had a caloric intake of about 150 cal per meal and diet colas in between. Pure garbage. Just as a sidenote, you can’t starve yourself and lose weight, your body will think it’s in starvation mode and begin storing it. (but I’ll save that for another blog)

What bothered me about her blog was that she said she "cheated" on her diet and splurged on a Supersized Meal. I giggled first at the cheated word. It was like she cheated on an abusive boyfriend with a jerk she just met. Then she went on to beat the crap out of herself for doing it. So she was malnourished and then jumped in front of a car.

All slamming aside, I was saddened because she said she hated herself. She feels suicidal because she didn’t stick to the plan.

There are many things out there which make us think we hate ourselves. It could be cheating on a diet or a spouse. I think it’s about disappointing ourselves. We don’t measure up and all of that.
I think it’s important to recognize that hating oneself doesn’t come from cheating on things like that. Cheating is merely a symptom of a problem. This girl began to starve herself because she wasn’t like the girls she saw on magazines, not because she understood the health benefits of losing weight. People will often cheat in relationships to make a problem go away for a short time, not because they think it’s a good idea.

Had this girl began a weight-loss program with a better mindset, she probably would like herself ok even if she didn’t lose a pound. She may even shed some pounds from being calmer. It’s best to understand why losing weight is important. It has everything to do with energy. If you are busy beating yourself up, there is no way you will accumulate energy. Hating yourself, beating yourself up and starving yourself burns energy really quickly…not to mention stores more fat around the mid section of your stomach due to the pancreas secreting insulin when your body is stressed or low. The lack of education is going to stop it all from working.

The same goes with cheating on a spouse. We hate ourselves after an act like that because we know it’s wrong and we feel like a failure at our relationship but we never did get to the root of the problem. I think each of us has looked in the mirror with some sort of disappointment, but I believe that if we spend the proper time gathering the facts, we can avoid the hate portion. She doesn’t have to hate herself for eating!! It does lead to a bigger esteem issue that should get sorted out.

I believe there shouldn’t be anything out there that makes a person hate themselves. Mistakes are just that. We can learn from them and move on, but never, never hate ourselves. There isn’t a reason to.

Hope you don’t have anything in your life that could possible make you hate yourself!

Much love on yas!
Karen :)

"Our history is not our destiny." ~ Alan Cohen

ADDENDUM; I assume most people know I managed a Women's Health Facility, but I should have added that also. I have counseled hundreds of women, I'm not talking about something I know nothing about. I think it could come off this way. It's important to get a person's frame of mind in the right place before attempting any weight loss. People have committed suicide over poor self esteem.