Emotional Eating - Did Cinderella Have A Good Press Officer?

I’ve always been biased against Cinderella. Mainly because I have large feet and would never have fitted into that glass slipper. But also because I feel that if she were treated that badly by her sisters she should have left home and set up a cleaning business (which we know she was skilled at) or done something a bit more enterprising than sit in the cinders.

She was obviously a girl who, once she got into the posh frock, simpered a lot, played on her looks and got the man. Of course being that petite, her bone mass would have been at risk of slow decline after the menopause, but the fairy story doesn’t go that far. And with a penchant for glass slippers, you can tell she’d cost the Prince a fortune in Manolo Blahniks.

Not that I begrudge her the fantastic night out, I’m sure she worked hard and deserved it. But the story does seem to tell me that women with large feet a) can’t be nice and b) don’t get the prince.

Many of my clients feel like the ugly sister and it’s so unfair. They are all lovely. And it’s so easy to feel that loveliness only comes about if you are slim.

It doesn’t. You are lovely and lovable now. Every inch of you. Even if you do wish there were fewer inches. And feeling lovely on the inside is one of the key strategies for successful weight loss.

Often this puzzles my clients at first, they feel that if they are at ease with themselves it will make them totally accepting of their shape and then they’ll sink into the sofa and eat until the burst.

But the opposite happens. Feeling lovely on the inside gives you a new energy and a desire to treat yourself well. “Treat” in this case means good nutritional food not the naughty treats that lured you before. You can accept your current shape but also know that this is not the best you can be. And you deserve the best.

Once you start believing and feeling lovely inside several things will happen:

1. You’ll have more energy.

2. You’ll blossom – you’re loveliness will start to show on the outside.

3. You’ll feel fantastic.

4. You’ll want to do other things than think about food.

5. You’ll want to feed your inner loveliness. So if at each meal you are choosing foods to feed your inner loveliness don’t you think you’ll make the right food choices?

Go on. Try it. Be lovely for a day, be gorgeous, and be fantastic! Don’t tell anyone you’re doing this, just take action and see what happens.

Weight loss begins in the mind, not in the mouth, so change your mind and you can change your shape.

Happy (and healthy) eating.nn(c) 2008 Liz Copeland