Perfectionism Not Wanted

I just got back into this blogging thing and last week, life threw me more than I could juggle, so I missed a big week.  I  had a lovely piece for Weight Stigma Awareness Week half-done (it was part self-help, part spilling my own guts).  Will share it later.  

 3 out of 3 of us in my house “had the works” in terms of symptoms from a cold and we were out of town for a wedding.  I did have to check myself to not get my subconcious all guilt-ridden over the “there is always time to do things that are important to you speech” percolating in my head.  I have learned to put the kibosh on that phrase pretty quickly these days.  

Do you know what allowed me do not beat myself up for doing something I thought was important?  Getting to the heart of the matter.  How come I didn’t finish that post?  I was sick and caring for a sick two year old and honestly, my creativity just wasn’t flowing.  And I didn’t set myself up with extra time to write more than usual to make up for that, so the self-care wasn’t there.

Looking back, I probably could have made it shorter and published what I had, so a miss in terms of catching the “perfectionism monster” that occasionaly lurks.  Lesson learned.  I know what I need now to get posts out every week, depending on the circumstances.

So, this story is reminds me of the journey towards healing your relationship with food and weight.  Your process doesn’t need to be perfect to be right and good for you.  You don’t need to please me with food journals you think a dietitian would think was “healthy”.  In fact, I look at food journals as just a tool to figure out what your body is asking for as well as the role your food beliefs and feelings play in those food decisions.

You certainly don’t need to have a photo-shopped body to be beautiful and genuinely feel that way.

In recovery and on the journey to attuned eating and joyful movement, all you really need is faith in yourself, desire to get well and to meet each moment with the presence you can.  And if you miss presence like I did last week, you can reflect on how come and learn how to get there next time.  Perfectionism screws up being present to what you need to succeed (I promise that little rhyme wasn’t on purpose).

Question for you.  How can you set yourself up to be more present in your food and body work so that perfectionism does not have much room to show up?

Look forward to hearing about your ideas.

xo
Much love
Tracy