In my late 20's, I started to diet and get fit in preparation for my wedding. Unlike many of my friends, I hadn't been on a weight-loss diet before. I had gone on healthy-eating regimes, but nothing as regular or intense as tracking my weight and logging my exercise routine before.
Controlling my calorie intake was challenging to begin-with but I soon got the hang of it and I felt so good as I watched the weight fall off me. I started to exercise more and more and felt so good at the results, it propelled me forward so that within 3-months, I had hit my goal weight and then needed to maintain it for 7 months before my wedding! This is when the mind-set properly kicked-in. As I was exercising so regularly, I wasn't eating enough and that meant that I would start to get extremely hungry and mindlessly binge to bring up my energy.
The cycle of being in control and then out of control of my body, took over and a negative mindset took hold. I would scrutinise my body in the mirror every morning, weigh myself each day, and berate myself if I had put on weight.
I was the smallest and fittest I had ever been, but I was NOT the happiest in myself - that is for sure!!
We had a lovely wedding and luckily for me, the lack of the deadline for weight-loss afterwards, meant that I soon got into a better mindset for eating and exercise. My periods had stopped because of the intense weight-loss I inflicted on myself, and it took a year to get my menstrual-cycle regular again.
Just over a year after getting married, I found out I was pregnant. The knowledge that my body was performing such a miracle, nourishing and giving life to another human changed me in an instant.
I needed to learn how to love and trust my body!
So, I read books on hyno-birthing, took a hypno-birthing course and was very serious about preparing my mind to trust my body to do the job it is designed to do.
For me, it worked like a dream and I was astounded at how powerful the mind can be and how the body responds when we give listen, trust and use our words and thoughts towards it accordingly.
As my 30's went on and I had 2-more children and watched my Mum fight a cronic-illness in the process, I am more sure than ever that the way we get to know, listen to and respond to our bodies is a game-changer.
I want my girls to understand their bodies so they can care for themselves accordingly, but also be aware of how they talk to themselves and how it can affect how our body responds to us.
Laura xx