As you are learning to love yourself, remember it’s a process. You don’t have to do all of this “correctly” for it to heal you deeply. Just take a step and then take another. You’ll get the hang of this over time. If you have a few meltdowns, just get up and keep going. You do not need to worry about doing it all perfectly. You’re doing just fine.
You are shining your sink, and letting go of clutter. You are practicing being kind to your spouse.
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An important way of loving yourself is to eat good food. I think we have all become confused about what this means. There is so much conflicting information out there. Here are some things to think about:
- Drink enough water. That means half a gallon to a gallon of water every day. It’s best to sip it throughout the day rather than just down glass after glass all at once.
- Eat food that is not processed or is minimally processed.
- Learn to read labels. If you buy tomato paste, for example, are the ingredients just tomatoes? Or does it also have high fructose corn syrup, etc.? Generally speaking, buy food that does not have a lot of ingredients.
- Don’t eat too much. We have forgotten about portions. If you go to a restaurant, you may get as much as three portions in a serving! We don’t need as much food as we think we do.
- Stay away from added sugar. Interrupt the cycle of sugar cravings by eating protein and fat. That will regulate your blood sugar and stop the cravings. A little bit of sugar won’t hurt you, but be aware that it’s easy to fall into the more, more, more cycle.
- If you eat some junk food, don’t stress over it. Stress is at least as harmful as the stuff we’re stressing about eating! Our bodies are designed to handle some toxins.
- Make friends with fruit and vegetables. You can’t go wrong eating those. Even though fruit has sugar in it, it gets a pass. Your body processes it differently than added sugar.
- Keep it simple You really don’t have to create a complicated meal plan. Collect a few recipes you like that are easy to make. You don’t need that much variety to be healthy.
- When at all possible, take the time to really enjoy your food. Light the candles. Eat slowly. Relax.
If you are tired and cranky a lot of the time, learning about food and eating is probably more important than retraining your spouse. Listen to your body and treat it well. This is loving yourself.