The Life You Have Imagined: New Year Goals Without Weight Loss

With the Jewish new year around the corner, I'm starting to imagine: what do I really want in this next year?

The new year used to be hard for me because it was when I would face my body and admit that I still struggled with food, that I still wanted to be ever-smaller. It was part of the process I needed to go through to eventually arrive at respecting my body, unconditionally, to setting new years goals without weight loss.

Throughout I Have a Body! I ask participants to bring in art to inspire us. One person brought in a beautiful poem by coach L'Erin. Here are some excerpts from it:

"You will break hearts, burn bridges, disappoint people on your path of liberation.

You will disrupt perfection performances to save your sanity.

You will pulverize the coziness of comfort, sometimes without knowing when you’ll find it again.

You will become a stranger to once beloved people & institutions in order to become home to yourself....

You will also discover that the risk is worth it.

That your truth is more powerful than their approval.

That your light is more liberating than their expectations.

So, burn it down baby...

Live the life you have imagined."

Hot damn.

If you could live the life you have imagined— what would that look like?

What would it mean if you did so in the body you have today, instead of the one you're waiting for?

For me, the journey looked like finally deciding to let go of body control and ask for help.

I'm not sure exactly what I want in this next year but turns out that without the constant pulsing of body worries, there's a lot more space to explore.