My hope for you today is that you feel energized, inspired, moved, and motivated to pursue freedom from food, body image challenges, and insecurities.

I’m going to share with you some reasons that recovery is worth it. And as I share these with you, my hope is that your brain will go into imagination and creativity mode. I hope you begin to imagine personalized reasons that recovery is worth it in your own life.

And there’s so many reasons that we may unknowingly avoid pursuing recovery. A lot of that is the fear. The fear of the unknown. The fear of what life is like on the other side. The fear of pursuing intuitive eating because we’re afraid if we don’t ‘white knuckle’ and control our diet by measuring and weighing everything, then we’re going to spiral out of control. That can be very scary, and I always want to validate those fears because they’re real. You do not need to feel silly for having those fears. But let’s dive into reasons working through the fear is worth it to reach a place of recovery.

1. Less social anxiety

When you heal your relationship with food and your body, you will inevitably have less social anxiety. You will not be afraid of what people think of you if you’ve gained weight, or you’ve lost weight, or your body has changed, or you’ve aged (like we all do). There will be so much less social anxiety that you’re navigating, which is such a gift to our soul.

2. Improved relationships

Having a positive relationship with food and your body image can lead to much stronger, much more meaningful relationships with others. You’re able to connect more effectively when you’re not in your own head stressed about your body image. And when you’re not dealing with so much internal pressure and anxiety, you’re able to be present with your friends. You’re able to be present with people you’re meeting.

3. Ability to enjoy activities and events with loved ones.

I wrote “Dad’s retirement party” as my little reminder of what the reason was for me recently. But being able to attend your friends’ and family’s events without anxiety, fear, or getting in your head about what the food scene will look like.

4. A sense of purpose and meaning beyond constantly focusing on weight, body image, and food.

Having a sense of purpose and a sense of meaning and knowing that your life is more than the number on the scale, your life is more than the way that you look. You are, in fact, way more than a body and you have way more to offer the world than what you look like.

5. Having spontaneous moments with the people you love.

That’s a gift. Where are you currently missing out on spontaneity because you’re so worried about food? Or you’re so worried about trying to control people’s perceptions of you, their perceptions of your body, or you’re trying to control the size of your body. Where are you missing out?

6. Being able to eat the same meals as your kiddos.

This one is for all my parents out there – having a meal with your children. One of my biggest motivators was my hope to become a mom one day. And that’s a journey that I’m on. Hopefully that’ll happen sooner rather than later. But I’m so thankful that years ago I decided to lean into the fear of pursuing recovery and intuitive eating so that I can enjoy food with my children without anxiety or fear.

7. Cultural cuisines

How many of you have cut out cultural foods from your diet or you’ve limited cultural foods because diet culture has deemed those as “unhealthy”? Because maybe some cultural foods like Mexican food has a lot of fat in the cheese and the guacamole and that just doesn’t work with your diet. Or maybe you don’t explore cultural foods because like me, you don’t know how to count the macros in there. You don’t know what’s in the recipe, and so you can’t eat it because you can’t track it.

8. Anxiety-free travel.

Have you ever thought about an upcoming trip and you started to stress because of somebody you were going to see? Or maybe you were going on a beach vacation and you wanted to lose weight leading up it, so you were going to do everything in your power to make that happen. You get to treat the vacation like a damn vacation and ENJOY it!

9. Increased self-esteem and self-confidence that goes so far beyond body image.

To recognize first, that I am more than my body. And, I can be confident even as my body changes and goes through different seasons of life. Because there’s so much more value that I offer this world than what I look like. That is such a gift.

10. More mental real estate.

When you’re getting started pursuing healing your relationship with food and your body, it’s scary, there’s doubt, fear, and so many unknowns. Then, what happens over time as you move through the healing journey is you gain more mental real estate. You have more mental energy to focus on other things. You can focus on your financial goals, career goals, relationship goals and intentions. You can focus on being the individual that you were meant to be and fulfilling your purpose and enjoying life.

Those are some of my favorite reasons for recovery right now. They’re always changing and evolving because recovery is such a beautiful thing and living with food and body freedom is such a liberating experience. But I hope some of those gave you ideas. What are some of the things that stood out to you? Or where is your brain going as you’re thinking about your own personal reasons for recovery?

I hope that you’re inspired today and I hope that you continue to think about and focus on why recovery is worth it for you personally. How will it impact your life? How will it impact those you love? What doors is it going to open when you’re no longer feeling anxious, stressed, overwhelmed, worried and insecure? Start to imagine what could be possible for your life when food freedom and body confidence is your reality.