FEELING GOOD ABOUT YOURSELF      A common problem overweight people suffer from is a lack of self esteem. Feeling inadequate can impact not only how you feel about yourself but can create mood swings, comfort eating and bingeing to try and make yourself feel better. If you are too busy prioritizing everybody else but yourself then it is time to start thinking about YOU! What do you need and what do you really want? I don't believe that you can give to others happily if you aren't giving to yourself first. Feelings of resentment and unhappiness take over and before too long you and everyone in your life feel unhappy. Feeling unhappy within yourself can make food a crutch, so if you are trying to lose weight and can't stick to it for very long, it could be your emotions that are destroying any chance of success. Emotional eating can quickly damage any healthy eating program for example - you eat too much on one day, so there goes another diet, you have a bad day so you feel there is no point continuing. What if next time you feel like giving up you say "Okay I've had a bad day but this is not going to stop me, I'll just do better tomorrow"? Do you think it would make a difference? The secret to weight loss is to take it one day at a time. If you do blow it one day, forget about it! Restart again tomorrow, the past is exactly that, the past. If you learn by your mistakes then they are valuable lessons. Here are 8 ways to improve your self esteem: 1. List all the things that you like most about yourself 2. Acknowledge your successes and accomplishments; give yourself a pat on the back occasionally. 3. Stop blaming others for your life circumstances, give up the "VICTIM" act. Begin to see yourself as the cause or source of what happens to you. 4. Stop putting yourself down and being critical of yourself. 5. Stop comparing yourself with others and see yourself as being of equal worth. 6. If you have a thought that starts with "I OUGHT TO", "I NEED TO", "I SHOULD", change it to "I WANT TO". 7. Focus on enjoying the present, rather than living in the past or future. 8. Learn from your mistakes, see them as valuable lessons rather than feeling guilty about them.