Let me ask you a question: What is optimal health to you? When I ask this question, I usually get some variation of “The guy with the 6-pack abs” or “The waif-thin actress.”
Part of creating optimal health and weight loss involves making healthy lifestyle choices and this includes taking care of those so-called ‘issues’ that hold us back from achieving a higher level of health, fitness and giving us the capability to live a higher quality life.
Really, optimal health is about making choices that help reduce the risk of illness, disease and faster aging as well as giving us the opportunity to live an energetic, vibrant life along with optimal and emotional balance. When lifestyle choices are made from a place deep within you that indicate you care about YOU (if you don’t take care of your health – who will?), your family and those around you, a shift occurs.
“Between the stimulus and response there is a space and in that space lie your power and freedom” — Viktor Frankl
When we make choices that are healthy and these choices are moving us forward in life – this means we value ourselves despite how thin or overweight we are, what we look like or what we just ate. Because the reality is you are inherently beautiful exactly the way you are right this very moment. There is not one single person in this whole world just like you.
When you make healthy lifestyle choices you are validating yourself as someone worthy..because you know what? You are worthy and you deserve good health – we all do.
So the next time you feel compelled to look outside yourself for external validation or acceptance, remember that when self-acceptance happens – your potential is unlimited.
LORI SHEMEK, Ph.D., is a leading researcher in fat cells and the owner of DLSHealthWorks, a company she created to help men and women conquer their issues with weight and self-esteem. Her work has been featured in Ladies’ Home Journal, Shape, Woman’s Day, The Rikki Lake Show, ABC, CNN, NPR, FOX News, and The Huffington Post, which recognized her as one of the nation’s top diet and nutrition experts.
Dr. Shemek holds a Doctorate in Psychology; she is a Certified Nutritional Consultant and a Certified Life Coach.
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