You Don't Miss Your Old Body. You Miss Feeling Like Yourself!
- kerribrown901
- 3 hours ago
- 4 min read
No time to read? Listen to the audio below.
There was a time I genuinely hated my body. Not in a passing, bad-mirror-day kind of way. In a deep, painful way that I carried quietly for a long time.
I was trying to have a baby. And my body, the one I'd trusted my whole life, felt like it was working against me. I lost a baby at 14 weeks. Then I lost another one around halfway through a pregnancy.
I don't have words for what that kind of grief feels like. But underneath the grief was something else: a belief that my body had betrayed me. That it was broken. That I couldn't trust it.
The Shift That Changed Everything
It wasn't until much later that my perspective began to change.
I started to understand that my body hadn't been working against me. It had been protecting me. Both times, as devastating as those losses were, my body made an impossible decision to protect me from something worse. It wasn't failing. It was doing exactly what a healthy, intelligent body does to protect the host at all times.
That realization cracked something open in me. I saw it again during childbirth. My body knew what to do. It was built for it. I didn't have to control it or fight it. I just had to listen to it and although it didn't go the way I wanted it to, we ended up with a healthy baby boy in the end.
I saw it again during recovery. Every signal my body sent, tiredness, hunger, the need to rest, was information. Not weakness. Not failure. Information.
My body has never actually been against me. It has always, always been on my side. I just hadn't learned how to truly listen to it yet.
What Does This Has To Do With Mindset?
Everything! The way you think about your body shapes every single decision you make about it. If you believe your body is broken, you punish it. You restrict it. You push through signals it's sending and wonder why nothing changes.
If you believe your body is on your side, you start to work with it instead of against it. You rest when it asks you to. You fuel it when it's hungry. You move it in ways that feel good instead of ways that hurt.
That shift in belief is the foundation every other pillar is built on. You can have the perfect nutrition plan, the ideal workout schedule, and a full night of sleep. But if the voice in your head is still telling you your body is the problem, you will stay stuck.
Mindset isn't a soft add-on to health. It's the thing everything else depends on.
The Joy Habit Most Moms Skip Entirely
Here's something I ask every mom I work with at the start of our time together:
What do you do every day that's just for you? Not for your kids. Not for the house. Not for your work. Something that brings you actual joy. Most moms go quiet.
Not because they don't know what they enjoy. Because they stopped giving themselves permission to prioritize it. Joy started to feel indulgent. Selfish. Something to get to once everything else was done.
But everything else is never done. And a mom running on empty, who has slowly erased the parts of herself that had nothing to do with being a mom, doesn't just feel depleted. She starts to feel invisible.
Joy isn't a reward for a productive day. It's fuel. It fills the tank that everything else drains. And that's exactly why it needs to be a priority!
3 Habits to Start This Week
Habit 1: Do one thing every day that brings you joy Not a grand gesture. Something small and real. A walk alone. A coffee before anyone else wakes up. A chapter of a book. Ten minutes of something that has nothing to do with being needed. Do it daily. Protect it like an appointment.
Habit 2: Start talking to your body like it's on your side When something feels hard or uncomfortable, instead of "what's wrong with me," try "what is my body trying to tell me?" This one shift changes the entire relationship. Your body is communicating constantly. Learning to listen is the skill that changes everything.
Habit 3: Write down one thing your body did well today Not how it looked. What it did. It carried you through a hard day. It kept going when you were tired. It showed up for your kids even when you had nothing left. Gratitude for function over appearance rewires how you see yourself over time.
You're Not Broken. You Never Were.
The woman you're looking for isn't gone. She didn't disappear when you became a mom. She's been here the whole time, asking to be listened to.
Your body is not your enemy. It is not broken. It is not working against you. It is extraordinarily smart and it is always, always trying to protect you.
When you learn to read its signals and respond to them, everything changes. Energy. Strength. Mood. Confidence. The way you move through your days.
This is why I include it as a main health pillar in my Rebuilt Woman Program. Not with a workout plan. Not with a meal plan. With the foundation: the belief that you are worth taking care of, and that your body is something to work with, not fight against.
If that's the shift you've been waiting to make, I'd love to be in your corner while you make it.
Book a free discovery call here. Let's start there.
Kerri Brown is a certified holistic health coach with 15+ years of experience helping moms rebuild their strength, energy, and confidence. She is the founder of the Rebuilt Woman a 6 month coaching program built around the 6 pillars of health.
kbhealthcoach.ca | @kbhealthcoach
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