The Truth About Self-Love, Body Image and Food -

Carrying on from last week’s post where I shared my thoughts on why self-love isn’t selfish, I thought I would ask my friend and Health & Life Coach, the super sparkly Sarah Tamburrini, to explore this topic even deeper.

I asked Sarah if she could shed some much needed light on the truth about self-love, body image and food. (I’m sure this is a topic that will pique your interest!).

So take it away Sarah!

I get a lot of questions about why it is that some woman are seemingly able to ‘enjoy their bodies’.

They wear clothes they want to wear, they’re able to get into bathers and swim and they happily wear shorts to the gym if they damn well please!

My clients tell me “She seems so fearless”, “I want to stop worrying about what I look like” and “I pray for the day I will love the skin I’m in”.

Let me tell you- we are not born with body preoccupations, or as I like to call them body ‘cray-crays’.

Being obsessed with how your body looks, whether your thoughts are real or imagined, is something we take on ourselves. Be it the influences from the media, where we are being bombarded with images of what the ‘ideal’ body looks like, ‘should’ look like and essentially ‘is’ like, family values, or societal values- some of us are more ‘predisposed’ to being cray- cray about our bodies.

One of the most prominent factors that separates those who are preoccupied with their bodies vs those who aren’t, boils down to self-love.

In my book, your degree of self-love is one of the most important body confidence protective factors. Simply: the more you love, honor and respect yourself, the more you are protected from hating and shaming your body.

I could talk about self-love for ages but I want to focus briefly on some of the important aspects women who accept themselves have:

They practice being courageous, which starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen as we are and for who we are. Imperfections and all.
They practice self-acceptance for which they give themselves permission to present their authentic, imperfect selves to the world.
They understand that they are imperfect, and wired to struggle with their body too, but ultimately they are worthy of love and belonging, just as they are.
They believe that their self-worth is worth more than what they look like.
They are ‘ok’ with being vulnerable. Imperfections are not inadequacies.

Say it with me: imperfections are not inadequacies (new daily mantra)

I want to let you in on some nuggets of wisdom about self-love, body image and food, which I have gained from my own struggle with my body, which you can read about here . Because the greater you can back yourself and honor who it is you are (not who you want to be, or who you think you should be), the more you will get closer to rocking your body, radiating your beauty and loving your life.

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SELF LOVE AND BODY IMAGE

+ True love starts from within.

+ Self-love is a daily commitment and it’s the little things done daily that make all the difference.

+ Self-love is about doing what you love and loving what you do.

+ Ask yourself “How do I want to feel” and let this question lead you to those things which simply light you up.

+ Self-care is not a selfish or a dirty word. It’s new age language for ‘health and happiness’.

+ Your body confidence will without a doubt sky rocket when you are bursting with love within yourself first.

+ Choosing love over fear is essential and it’s a moment-to-moment practice, that when you ‘get it’ is an absolute bloody game changer!

+ Choosing to do all things out of love instead of fear will make your life infinitely better.

+ Write yourself a love list and do something from it each day to bring about radical change.

+ Comparison is the thief of joy. So do what you love and do it damn well. See my list of what I do damn well even though it goes against the grain of what is ‘hip’ for health and life coaches to be doing.

SELF-LOVE AND FOOD

+ Food is often used to fill a void. It can be seen as an ‘easy’ fix to suppress feelings of pain, discomfort and fear.

+ Food is a way of distancing ourselves from reality. The obsession with food can stop, and will stop when we find the courage to face our reality.

+ When you believe in yourself more than you believe in the power of food, you will stop using food as your shield.

+ Your relationship with food is a direct reflection of your relationship with yourself.

+ How worthy you feel is reflected in all areas of your life, including what’s on your plate, what you choose to put in your mouth and what parameters you put around food and eating.

+ As soon as you stop trying to fix yourself through food and dig deeper, you will unlock the true healing potential behind your food related craziness.

+ Food is just food. There is nothing to fear about food and eating food in a balanced and moderate way.

+ The best relationship with food is when you trust your body enough to feed it what it needs, in the quantity it needs. Everyone is capable to tuning in and listening to their bodies.

+ Too many people today are eating with their brain and not their ‘gut’. And that’s why we are damaging our health and happiness.

+ Changing the way you think and feel about food and then ultimately how you eat, involves looking at your life as a whole, not as a sum of parts.

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Now, Sarah and I would love to hear from you. What are three things you would tell your 15-year-old self about self-love, body confidence and food? Share these with us in the comments below.

Did you find this helpful? If you found this article helpful or know someone who will truly benefit from reading it, please share it with all of your friends and help contribute to spreading more self-love and body confidence into the world.

Like what you read? Sign up to Sarah’s newsletter over at Practise Glow and get your hands on her soon-to-be released BRAND new Ebook ‘Be Free: A Heart- Centered Guide To Change Your Relationship With Food And Your Body” + Body. Glow. Love: A 4 part audio series to help you to rock your body, radiate your beauty and love your life OUT in AUGUST!

About Sarah

Sarah Tamburrini, is a life + wellness coach, informally known as a rule breaker, lifestyle rebel and a food freedom warrior. As a recovered self diagnosed control freak, Sarah helps women all over the world dial down their crazy dietary obsessions so that they can make peace with food and their bodies and get back to living amazing lives. Her work is grounded in the belief that transforming your mindset changes everything.

Her online digs, Practise Glow is a place where health and happiness is measured in belly laughs instead of belly fat, self- love matters more than self-denial and you get to flex your ‘food-freedom’ muscles every day. What you won’t find is fear-mongering and all-or-nothing dietary propaganda.

When Sarah’s not authentically and un-apologetically living and breathing her message you can find her enjoying dessert (containing fructose), spending far too much time on Instagram, watching re-runs of MasterChef and packing her suitcase for her next getaway. She’s swapped her food obsession for her partner Chris, self- love and a whole lot of compassion and she wouldn’t have it any other way.