Most approaches to weight loss treat your body as the enemy or, at best, like a misbehaving servant who needs to be punished and beat back into submission.

But, your body is not your enemy nor your servant. Your body is a she, not an it, and she is your secret ally on your journey to the body you crave. I call her your Female Animal.

She is intelligent and wise. She’s not a possession of the mind, but a warm-blooded, furry creature you have the privilege of spending your life with. This is important to be aware of when it comes to weight loss because, like all animals in nature, your female body already instinctively knows what to eat, and how to move to be in balance. She doesn’t need food rules, calorie-counting or punishing exercise.

Yet, as available as our own wisdom is, instead of being guided to pay attention to our body’s needs and desires, we have been conditioned to look outside of ourselves to external experts to tell us what and how much to eat. This keeps us stuck in the strenuous cycle of hopping from diet to diet.

No matter how these diets differ on the outside, what they have in common is the theme of denial.
Frequently these programs equate to self-abuse in the name of weight loss when they deny your Female Animal her right to be heard.

That’s why I know that punishing approaches to weight loss will and can never work. As counterintuitive as it sounds, the pleasurable way is the only viable way.

It’s time to give your Female Animal the respect she deserves and to hear her roar. The answers to your weight loss woes are within her, it’s just a matter of learning to listen.

When you reconnect with the wisdom of your feminine body, you stop fighting against her. This is when weight loss becomes pleasurable and effective.

Ask yourself, “How have I been approaching my body in the past?” Did you learn to see her as your enemy, or as something to be controlled? How do you want to approach your body now?

I invite you to share your thoughts in the comments below. This is an important conversation for women, and one that needs to happen out loud. I look forward to hearing from you.