A few months ago, I wrote a particularly vulnerable article about the poignant journey I’m on with my body right now.

Since my son was born, I’ve been on a journey – equal parts incredible and grueling – to heal and bring my body back from the brink of death.

This is no small feat. I like to laugh and call myself Humpty Dumpty. It has definitely taken a team to put me back together again.

But something unexpected has happened alongside my healing journey.

I’ve gained a significant amount of weight. This weight gain hasn’t been because of a crappy diet, or because I’m binge eating, or even because I’m consuming too many calories in a day.

It’s more mysterious than any of that. It’s something that has been difficult to accept because I’ve been doing all the “right things” and applying all my expertise to my own body.

What I’ve learned is that weight is multi-dimensional and complex. Losing weight is multi-dimensional and complex.

There are so many reasons why anyone gains and/or is not able to lose weight, and very few of them have anything to do with the golden rule of the dieting industry, which is:

Eat less = weigh less.

It’s just not that simple.

Every person’s weight loss journey will be different from someone else’s. What works for one isn’t necessarily going to work for another.

Sometimes the key to weight loss for one is balancing and harmonizing hormones. For someone else, it’s recognizing that the physical inertia of weight gain is mirroring the emotional inertia they’ve been carrying for decades.

For some, the key to weight loss could include doing deep trauma work to create safety and peace in the body. For others, it is more about elevating the quality of food they eat, monitoring the quantity, and mastering the attitude and mindset that they approach eating with.

For someone else, it’s all of the above, and more.

There is so much that weight can teach us when it is here, and so much that we can learn when we enter into the inner and outer journey of shapeshifting.

The body is such a powerful teacher. When an unwanted symptom or body challenge arises, it’s an invitation to listen to it. Tend to it. And follow its lead.

If you are in the current body challenge of “I want to lose weight”, it’s important to remember the complexity that contributed to the arrival of the weight. If you’re seeking gratifying and sustainable weight loss, there will be complexity to the weight’s departure, too.

If you’re stuck in the dieting loop, or you know you don’t want to do the dieting thing anymore, but you don’t know what else to do…

Please be gentle and generous with yourself. Be kind to your body, even when it doesn’t look the way you want it to.

Know that you have received an invitation to go deeper. You’re being asked to befriend your body and honor yourself in ways you haven’t known how to before now.

Something incredible is waiting for you. Are you willing to step towards it?

Please reach out of you’d like more support.

Lots of love,

Alicia