It's February, the month of love. It is important this month to celebrate not only love for another, but also love for yourself! In fact, let's make this month all about loving ourselves. Because did you know that a healthy dose of self-love helps you lose weight? In this blog, we'll tell you more about it.
What exactly is self-love?
Self-love is about the way you think about and then treat yourself. Self-love is the superlative of a positive self-image. But what exactly do both entail?
Positive self-image
When you have a positive self-image, you fully accept who you are, including your shortcomings and flaws. You feel good about who you are and accept yourself with both your strengths and weaknesses. You are happy with yourself regardless of your accomplishments, status or possessions. In other words, you respect yourself. This includes knowing yourself and being realistic about your own strengths and shortcomings.
Self-love
Self-love goes just a step further than a positive self-image. Self-love means not only accepting yourself for who you are, but also caring about yourself. This means taking good care of yourself, being kind to yourself and listening to yourself and your feelings and needs. In doing so, you make your own choices and do things your way. Of course you sometimes ask someone else for his or her opinion, but you realize that in the end it is about what you think and feel. Self-love gives you peace of mind and the inner confidence to make difficult decisions.
At the same time, self-love forms the basis from which you establish and maintain contact with others. When you love yourself, you can more easily meet others openly with your own wishes and needs. This also makes it easy to respond to others in a positive and assertive way and to indicate your boundaries.
Finally, a person with a healthy dose of self-love takes responsibility for his or her own thoughts and the behavior that results from them.
Self-love and losing weight
A positive self-image and self-love are good predictors of a healthy diet. When you are happy with the person you are, grateful for your healthy body and for all that your body does for you, you also allow yourself to eat healthy. You grant your body the best nutrition because it makes you feel the best.
Self-love works like this: everyone has moments when they crave an unhealthy snack. But instead of mindlessly pulling open a bag of chips, regretting it afterwards, someone with a lot of self-love says to themselves, "My body deserves only the best, my body deserves better than this." Chances are, instead of that bag of chips, you grab a healthier alternative such as a piece of raw vegetables or a whole wheat cracker with cottage cheese. The idea is, that by appreciating your body, during meal times you choose something that nourishes rather than fills your body. A nourishing product literally nourishes and cares for your body, while a filling product, such as potato chips, only fills up your body where it forms a ballast for your system (food high in sugars, fats, additives and/or hard-to-digest ingredients).
Self-love also includes being happy with what you have and being realistic about your strengths and shortcomings. For example, it helps in losing weight that you first respect your body as it is and from there take good care of your body by making the right food choices. This way you become the healthiest and most energetic version of yourself!
Self-love also helps you feel responsible for your thoughts and behavior. You don't let stressful circumstances or an undermining environment influence you and you realize that you hold the key to a healthy lifestyle. To this end, you have your own path to walk and keep your focus on your goal.
Finally, a healthy dose of self-love helps you to better indicate your limits, also with regard to your food choices and thus with losing weight. Are you having a nice dinner party and your friends think it's unnecessary for you to skip dessert? You do not let this put you off and calmly indicate that you are no longer hungry and would like a tea.
How much self-love do you possess?
Below is a fun test to gain insight into your own dose of self-love. There are a number of statements below each other. On a scale of 1 to 5, you can indicate the extent to which you agree with the statement. It is about how you feel in general, not just at this moment. Sit back and don't think too long about each question. Just go with your first hunch and be honest with yourself! 🙂
| Strongly disagree | Neutral | Totally agree | |||
| I am happy with myself | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| I make my own choices and do not let them depend on other people's opinions | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| I like myself the way I am | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| I see myself as a capable and interesting person | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| I take good care of myself | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| I actually never doubt myself | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| I love myself like I love a good friend | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| I often think I can help others | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| I have little doubt that I am doing things right | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| I can make decisions easily | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| I think I can give a lot of love to others | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| I am not jealous | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| I am assertive, both at work and privately | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| I usually know what I want in life | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
After you have circled what applies to you, you can add the numbers together. You will then get your total score. Below you can read what your total score means:
A score of 42 points or lower indicates that your self-love is on the low side and that you have relatively lower self-esteem. Of course, the lower your score, the lower your self-esteem. You may well experience hindrance from it in everyday life. Don't worry about this, many people have this! The good thing is that you now know that there is much room for improvement. Ask our coaches for guidance through an intake interview and keep an eye on our socials for tips, tricks and exercises for increasing your self-love.
A score between 42 and 55 points indicates that you do not necessarily have low self-esteem, but also no convincingly positive self-image. You will not experience many hindrances to this in daily life, although your self-love may grow for a greater degree of self-care and happiness. Ask our coaches for guidance through an intake interview and keep an eye on our socials for tips, tricks and exercises for increasing your self-love.
A total score of 56 points or higher indicates that you have a relatively positive self-image and in principle have enough self-love to go through life happy and uninhibited! Of course, the higher your score is, the more positive your self-image. Very good, we're happy for you.
