Loving My Body Changed Everything: A Reflection on Food, Health, and Self-Worth
- Julie
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
I’ve struggled with my weight for most of my life. Some of it is genetic — I come from a family where many of us have larger bone structures, and weight has always been a challenge. But a lot of it has been emotional, too.
I’ve gone through cycles of high-protein diets, low calorie diets, trying to follow every trend that promised results. At one point, I pushed my body so hard I ended up needing emergency gallbladder surgery. I was trying so hard to get healthy… but I wasn’t coming from a place of love. I was trying to control and fix — I was coming from a place of fear.
For me, food became more than just nourishment. It was comfort. It was a quick hit of dopamine or serotonin, especially during the lowest points of my anxiety or depression. Eating was how I coped — how I tried to feel better, even if it was just for a moment.
But no one ever taught me the most important thing I could do for my body: truly love it. Only how to criticize it. How to look at it through a lens of what society deemed it should look like. How to chase perfections as if it were the ultimate goal — even at the cost of my health.
This is what I’ve been unlearning. And what I’ve been learning, instead, is this:
When I love my body, everything changes.
The Shift: From Control to Love
Everything changed when I started loving myself — not just mentally or spiritually, but physically. I began to see my body as something sacred. A vessel that holds my soul. A living, breathing child of creation. I was entrusted with this body — and it’s my job to protect it, to care for it, to honor it. The same way I would care for a child or someone I love deeply.
When that shift happened, my relationship with food changed too. It stopped being about guilt or fear. It became about nourishment. Support. Love. I didn’t want to hurt my body anymore. I wanted to feed it with things that made it feel supported and cherished.
Real Food, Real Love
Now, most of the foods I eat come from the outer edges of the grocery store — the places where the fresh, whole foods live. I’ve learned to stick with things that have three ingredients or less. If I look at a label and can’t pronounce something, it doesn’t go in my cart.
I choose foods that are simple, whole, and clean because I’ve realized how many dangerous chemicals and additives are packed into what most people eat every day. Artificial dyes like Red 40, preservatives, fake sweeteners — they’re everywhere, especially in the inner aisles. And the truth is, they’re making us sick.
Our Food System is Failing Us
And here’s the part that makes me angry: It shouldn’t be this hard.
It shouldn't require this much effort to avoid harmful additives. We shouldn't have to memorize lists of dangerous dyes like Red 40, Yellow 5, or Blue 1 just to protect our families.
So much of what fills our grocery shelves isn’t real food — it’s chemicals, preservatives, and marketing. And so much of it is revenue-driven, not wellness-driven. That’s not your fault. But once you know, it becomes your responsibility to choose differently — not from fear, but from love.
You Are Worth It
I know it’s not always easy. Changing your relationship with food is deeply emotional. It’s tied to family, comfort, trauma, identity. But I want you to know something:
You are worth taking care of.
Your body is not your enemy. It is your home. It is trying to carry you through this life the best way it can — and it will respond when you treat it with love. You don’t have to follow what society tells you. You don’t have to let the processed, chemical-heavy options define your meals. You can choose to listen to your body. You can choose to feed it like you would feed someone you love.
And the more you love yourself… the more everything begins to change.
"Healing begins the moment you choose love over fear — even in what you eat." — Unknown
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