How to love yourself

Learning how to love yourself is important. New research published in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology says that people who are kind to themselves and more tolerant of their failings, are most likely to achieve their fitness goals.

The study looked at female students who were participating in a food tasting experiment. The students were split into two groups and asked to eat doughnuts and sweets. The first group was told that everyone eats these foods and they shouldn’t be too hard on themselves. The second group was given no instructions at all. The study discovered that after being reassured, the students in the first group ate less than those in the second group.

It’s seemingly counterintuitive, but the researchers came to the conclusion that the students who felt guilty about eating junk food eventually ate more because they got locked into “emotional eating” patterns. However the students who were reassured that eating junk food every now and again was okay, felt less guilty about their occasional lapses and so they tended not to habitually over-eat.