How to Practice Self-Love Quit Dieting for Good

Since it’s Valentine’s day tomorrow, I thought it would be fun to talk about the most important kind of love – loving yourself! You are the most important person in your life that needs to be loved. When you love yourself, you have more capacity to truly love others, and to spread that love into the world. All too often, we forget how to practice self-love, or we think that loving ourselves isn't important. (Or worse - that self-love is a bad thing!)
I'm here to remind you: it’s most definitely not selfish! I probably need to do a whole episode on that, because so many women feel selfish taking care of themselves first! In reality, it’s selfless and smart, because it’s going to help everyone in your life. 
Self-Care vs. Self-Love You might be confused about the difference between self-love and self-care so let’s talk about it. 
Self-care is an act of self-love – so self-love is all encompassing.
Think about your child – you take care of them by feeding them, bathing them, helping them with their homework which is also a way to show them you love them. But you also love them by talking kindly to them, smiling at them, hugging them, giving them gifts, doing nice things for them, encouraging them when they're down, and the list goes on. 
Today, I’m going to give you 6 things to focus on while learning how to practice self-love. 
First, I want you to start practicing noticing what you do love. If you don’t currently love yourself, it’s easy to be in a state where you don’t really love much about your life. So, I find it a bit easier to notice what you do love, and get yourself in a more positive mindset before you dive into some of deeper practices surrounding self-love. 
This can look like noticing what you love about different people in your life. It can be noticing what physical things you love that you surround yourself with in your home and office. You can start noticing what you love about the different activities you do in your day.
Once you start noticing what you love, take the time to appreciate what you do have. This is a start of a gratitude practice, and the more you can be grateful for what you have, the more you are going to enjoy your life. So start with the awareness and appreciation of the lovely aspects of your current life to get you in the more positive, loving state of mind. And that is the first step towards being able to practice self-love.
Second, I want you to figure out how you love to be loved (and start practicing self-love).  Have you heard about the five love languages? Do you know your top two love languages? I learned mine about two years ago and it’s been a game-changer for me in the relationship with myself and others.
In the book, it separates the love languages into five categories: acts of service, gifts, quality time, physical touch, and words of affirmation. 
You can take the test over at 5lovelanguages.com. (But really, you don’t even have to take the test – you can just start thinking about and noticing what others do that make you feel loved.)
Try taking out the trash for yourself, or telling yourself how great of a job you did on your work project. You could give yourself a beautiful bouquet of flowers too. Try making a long list of things that make you feel loved and appreciated. Then notice the commonalities! 
For me, my top two love languages are quality time and acts of service. If my husband does the dishes without me asking, I feel loved. If we have a good conversation while making dinner, I feel loved. 
Once you know how you love to be loved, start practicing those ways to love yourself! It’s no wonder how I feel so recharged and more like myself when I have some good quality alone time with myself. Journaling, taking myself to a meal, or just going on a nice walk.
And for acts of service - I prepare beautiful and delicious meals for myself. I also make regular health appointments for my