Labeling Yourself Stuck.

Pass the glue remover please.

I spend my time now free from labels that kept me stuck in a story.   I am talking FOOD Labeling and SELF Labeling.

I like to cook naked, because that gives me food in its most natural form. Food from the earth. Living food that provides real energy and real nutrients.  I have made a conscious choice to eat food with no label.

I just don’t like labels. But it wasn’t always this way.

MY FOOD..ARGH!  I ate anything that said, FAT FREE, CALORIE FREE and I did every weight loss experiment known to man.

MY SELF… Double ARGH! I had many but most of them were of the “just not good enough” kind of label.

EATING DISORDERED! FAT! You name it I wore it.

I learned lessons. Hard ones but necessary ones. I studied in school and learned about food labels and removed them from my life and became naked with my food. The self labels were a lot harder to give up.

They seemed stuck on me with permanent glue. That permanent sh*t is sure hard to remove.

 

The persistent label that said  “DISORDERED EATER” (aka: I HAVE AN EATING DISORDER. THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH ME)  stayed the longest with me. And as labels do, it came along with a list defining ingredients:

• Not good enough
• not perfect enough
• not thin enough
• broken, needs fixing

 

While wearing this DISORDERED EATER label,  I would have to come from a place of disorder and stuffing, binging, depriving, craving, sadness,, stuck-ness, not enough-ness and all the things that constitute a disordered eater.  Even when I moved up to the level of “recovered”, it put me in a bind, implying that I was a victim and still had boundaries that had to be careful or she could be sucked back in.

UH … NO!  I didn’t like either of those options.

They felt yucky, scary, shameful, sh*tty….

If I am labeled as eating disordered, I’d show up to dinner with a totally different set of skills.

I would struggle with dinner decisions, challenged to make a choice. It would take enormous effort to get it perfect, to eat the right food, to eat the right amount, to think the right thoughts about the food.  OMG…

…to make sure that that particular meal doesn’t trigger MORE of something. This label confirms that something is wrong with me.

WE LIVE INTO OUR DEFINITIONS OF SELF.   WE MAKE  A DEAL WITH THEM.  WE AGREE TO GO BY THE RULES OF WHAT “IT” SAYS WE ARE AND BECOME STUCK IN THE LIMITATION OF THEM.

When I discovered the amazing removal glue… all bets of being stuck, fat, and suffering went with it.

When I removed the label I felt a heavy weight lifted off of me.

I could now show up as a new person. A woman with new possibility. A woman without boundaries of who I AM..

I AM ALL POSSIBILITY .. I AM PERFECT FOR TODAY.

I AM HEALTH.  I AM STRENGTH. I AM ALL I CHOOSE TO BE.

This woman who sits down to dinner is a health sexy woman.

This woman eats  pure and naked food because it feels better.

This woman chooses her food because it’s good for her one very precious body.

This woman has cut the ties to the past and to strings of imperfection.

This woman is perfect for today.

Nothing is wrong with me now.

Nothing ever was (except for that wrongly placed label)

Okay but hold on. I can’t just sit here and trash that label. I need to give credit where credit is due.

That label served me in very special ways.

I used that label as a crutch. It worked really well for a long time.

It allowed me to play it small when I wasn’t ready to step it up. It allowed me to hide when I needed to feel safe. So it worked like a charm and I thank it for it’s help.

It allowed me to use food for comfort, for a drug, for numbing sensations and it worked really well. I thank it for it’s fortitude.

It gave me the excuse I needed to numb out of my life and ignore the real stuff that needed to change. I could focus on the FAKE label so I didn’t have to face the truth.

When the real focus felt too risky and scary, my label gave me permission to eat my way into an easier problem so I could have something to keep me occupied. Weight loss and gain was a great side show, a one act play that took center stage in my life for many years.

Are you sporting a label of your own?

It may feel scary to think about letting go of your label. Trust me, I understand as I had mine for many years like hanging on to it like an old teddy bear with the stuffing falling out.

I liken it o removal of a bandaid from a wound. You’re afraid to peek under the protective cover and look at it. You could find blood and guts and pain under there.

Violet (my beautiful gram) used to have us remove our bandaids from our scrapes at nite to make room fro them to breath,  so that the air could get to it and it could heal faster.   All on its own with no protection. Maybe it’s time to remove your bandaid.

I realized at 50 years old that I am divinely perfect (even with my” i.m.perfections”). I was given permission to take my label off, to get naked, so to speak, and now I am free.  Who gave me this permission you ask?  I DID.

Just like my food is free from crap, junk and fake stuff. So my mind is free. My label and my bandaid are gone.

I am free from the fake stuff (those limiting thoughts and beliefs) that held me back for so long.

Free from the preservatives that kept me the same. Free from the inflammatories that may

promote dis-ease.. I am free to be me.

I AM THE REAL DEAL… THE REAL NAKED DEAL.

… so are you.

I invite you to join me and tear off that label.

You’ve got options. Either peel with care or rip with pleasure.

However you do, just do it.  Remove the label story and set your self free.

SELF LOVE COMES FIRST. All else follows.

I can share with you, that it is beyond awesome on this side of healthy. And every day and every way you have a new opportunity to show up in your life better and better. It is amazing that when you remove the label around your neck, you can have, do or be anything you want. You can choose to eat food that has no label which in itself is a healing art. Better food makes a better body and you deserve to have both.

Here is some help in how to lose your label. 

Become aware and acknowledge that it is hanging there. Stuck there.

Then name it. What is the label you wear that hold you back?

How did it serve you? What did you get by living under these guidelines?

If you were to remove your label how would you be different? How would your life be different?

What would she look like without the confines of that definition?

Share with me and comment on this blog.