The Secret To Body Confidence
The Secret To Body Confidence
We all know that what you look like isn’t important. It’s what’s on the inside that counts. That the number on the scales is just a number. It’s your health that really matters.
And yet.
We’re surrounded by messages and images that tell us that appearance is important and being thin is the holy grail, and we end up knowing one thing and feeling another - that losing weight and being thin is the secret to feeling happy.
But it’s not.
When you eat and exercise to lose weight, it starts a toxic cycle. Food and exercise stop being things you do to take care of your body and become things you can’t stop thinking about because they have the power to make you big or small.
And that’s where things start to come unstuck.
Because when you eat and exercise to change your body, all you can think about are all the things you hate about your body, and all the things you should be doing better or more of to make your body different.
If diets and weight-loss inspired exercise help you to feel good about your body, great. Keep doing what works for you. But if they don’t, if they make you feel worse, try these things instead.
Focus On What Food Does For Your Body
Seeing food as a tool you can use to change your body will keep you stuck in a negative body image cycle. Try to see food for what it is - fuel. Eat carbohydrates so your body has the energy it needs to think, move, and function. Protein so your body has the material it needs to grow and repair itself. Dairy to strengthen your bones. Fruits and vegetables for a healthy gut and a strong immune system. Don’t count calories or deprive your body of what it needs - eat for function and purpose instead.
Aim For Balance And Flexibility
Eat all kinds of foods, yes, even chocolate, burgers, and chips. Just eat foods like that in moderation. All food is fuel, no food is good or bad, but some foods offer a better quality energy source than others. Fuel your body with high quality foods like complex carbohydrates, proteins, fruits and vegetables, but eat all kinds of food, and don’t just eat for fuel, eat for pleasure sometimes too.
Change Your Exercise Focus
Like with food, exercising to change your body won’t help your body confidence, it’ll keep you stuck measuring your self-worth via your weight. Instead of exercising to burn calories or to lose weight, move your body to reduce stress and manage your mood, or to feel strong and increase your fitness - any reason that’s meaningful to you and doesn’t relate to weight.
Focus On What Your Body Can Do, Not What It Looks Like
Your body is a pretty amazing machine, but it’s a quiet achiever. Most of what it does happens without your awareness, which is why it’s easy to get distracted by what it looks like and forget to appreciate it for what it allows you to do. But you can change that by learning to treat your body well. Eat a balanced diet so your body is well nourished. Exercise so your body is fit, healthy, and strong. Prioritise sleep so your body can have the rest it needs to function at its best. And thank your body for everything it does by making time for self-care. Think massages, bubble baths, body lotions, things like that.
Throw Out Your Bathroom Scales
It’ll be hard to have a healthy body image if you track your weight. Weighing yourself will keep thoughts about your body and what it looks like front of mind, which will stop you being able to appreciate your body for what it does, and work against your efforts to be body-neutral. Worse, when you don’t lose weight as quickly as you’d like, you’ll beat yourself up and hate yourself for it, but even if you do, you still won’t feel happy, because it’s how you think and feel about yourself that needs to change, not your body weight and shape. Get rid of your bathroom scales - you don’t need them.
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