It’s a sad but true fact that most people with a weight problem – unless they’ve proactively work on their self-esteem – don’t like (or even HATE) themselves.

The reasons vary from person to person, but some common reasons are:

• Abuse that warped their self-image
• Societal judgments about people with a weight problem
• Associating their weight with letting themselves down (even without realizing this is what they’re doing)
• Primal survival wiring that tells us people who are thin and healthy, and even physically attractive, have a better chance of survival than people who are obese, sick, and unattractive

Whatever the reasons for hating yourself, doing it certainly won’t help you lose weight.

Oh, you might hate yourself into dropping a few pounds, but just like any relationship where there’s hate, it’s gonna get toxic fast.

If you want to lose weight without hating yourself, I respect you for that, because you’ve got the right idea.

Some forms of the body positivity movement would have you believe that staying obese and sick is loving yourself.

Ideally, yes, you’ll love yourself regardless of how much body fat you’re carrying around.

But that doesn’t mean you should have to stay obese and sick until you love yourself in order to do something about your weight and physical wellness.

Losing weight without hating yourself comes down to seeing weight loss as self-love, instead of torture, punishment, or a way to be worthy.

You already are worthy. You don’t need to prove it to anyone. You may feel like you need to prove it to yourself. I get that.

Even so, losing weight to prove you’re worthy doesn’t work long-term. It might get you started, but at some point, your reasons need to go beyond that, because being at goal weight won’t fix the leak in your self-worth bucket.

Treat weight loss as a way to show self-love. Even if you don’t feel self-love yet, when you SHOW yourself self-love by taking better care of your body with real food, water, and sleep, you will start to feel it, just like you would if someone outside of you did – or said – nice things for you just because they love you.

Treat yourself well, treat weight loss and nourishing foods as a way to show self-love instead of away to punish or deprive yourself, and you’ll be able to lose weight without hating yourself.

It might take some time, because hating yourself doesn’t usually go away overnight.

Give yourself that time, and really work on viewing real food, water, and sleep as self-love, because they are.

One of the most loving forms of self-love you can express is to give your body clean, healthy fuel.

Show love to yourself by showing love to yourself with real food, water, and sleep. Weight loss comes as a natural result of that.

Have you created your free Code Red Lifestyle™ network account yet?

If not, here’s how to get your account!

1) On your computer, create your account at www.CodeRedLifestyle.com/App.

2) If you want the network on a mobile device, go to the App Store or Google Play Store and search for Code Red Lifestyle.