How to Love Yourself When You Feel Like a Cow
You know the feeling…let’s just say hypothetically a major holiday just passed and you shockingly put on 5 pounds over a weekend; incessantly eating, one large celebratory meal after another for 2 days straight; wine, bread, dessert…the more the merrier right? Until the food coma hits, you’re bloated, your pants feel tight, your blood sugar crashes, and finally you simply feel like a cow!
Ok, I must confess, this was me 2 days ago after celebrating Rosh Hashana. It’s taken me 2 days to completely emerge from the fog, but here I am, amazingly with some valuable reminders about the importance of loving myself even when I feel like a cow. It can be all too easy to judge ourselves harshly when we’ve done something that leaves us feeling so heavy and ill. But is it really easy? Actually that’s half of what makes the aftermath of a binge so hard. It’s not just dealing with the physical discomfort, but also the pain of self-loathing and self-criticism.
Initially I too lay victim to the voices of self-deprecation in my head. I was prey to the nasty translator in my mind that turned my bloated overfed body into an object of ridicule and disgust. Kick me while I’m down, why don’t you! After a while it became clear that this nastiness was not going to change my situation and was only making me feel worse. Instead I chose to evoke a more compassionate voice that could offer a soothing reminder that I could and would feel better shortly if I started listening to my body again and moderately fed it foods that felt clean, light, and nourishing. Ahh…much better! Amazing how a little lemon water morphed into a love potion.
These seem to be the few simple steps...
- Experience the torturous impact of your critical, self-loathing mind.
- Invite a more compassionate interpretation of yourself, your body and the circumstance. Be generous, loving, forgiving. You can always choose it.
- Express kindness toward yourself in action. It’s amazing how powerful a loving act of self-care can be in moments like these.
- I actually highly recommend the practical use of fresh squeezed lemon juice in room temperature water for “hangovers” like these. It helps cut through the muck, eliminates rebound sugar cravings, and activates the digestive organs of elimination and detoxification.
Has reading this resonated for you? What are your experiences like with food and body loathing? How can you love your “cow” in this moment, in thought, feeling, and action?
