Alicia Phillips, Patient Educator, Baptist Health Weight Loss Program
Some people want to lose weight because they’ve determined that doing so will be best for their personal health, and some just feel more like themselves at a certain weight. Whatever your reason, losing weight can be an incredible personal journey. Staying positive while your body is changing is important to your physical and mental health.
Use these tips to stay more body positive:
- Be nice to yourself. Don’t’ say anything to yourself you wouldn’t say to someone else’s face. Be NICE!
- Progress comes in many forms, not just the scale. Focus on how you feel, how you look in the mirror, how your clothes fit, your numbers at the doctor’s office. Obsessing about a number on a scale will drive you crazy.
- Don’t compare your progress with anyone else’s. Your beginning may be their end.
- Clean out your closet. Throw away those skinny jeans that you wore in high school, or that dress you wore 10 years ago. Also, throw out clothes that are too big for you. Over-sized frumpy clothes do you no favors. Wear clothes that make you feel good and confident. Work with your body, not against it.
- Pay yourself a compliment everyday – and make sure you mean it.
- Don’t think negatively about food. Good food is one of the great joys in life. Enjoy it; don’t be scared of it or angry at it. Associating guilt with good food can make you feel like a failure every time you eat. Enjoy it in moderation and appreciate its deliciousness.
- Become a critical viewer of social and media messages. Pay attention to images, slogans, or attitudes that make you feel bad about yourself or your body. Protest these messages: write a letter to the advertiser or talk back to the image or message. Remember – everything you see in a magazine is Photoshopped!
- Listen to your body and respond when it tells you something. If you’re light headed or sore or anxious or lethargic, do something to make it feel better. You only get one body so take care of it.
- Be more positive of others’ bodies. If you’re hard on yourself, you are probably just as hard on others. Everyone is going through their own battle. When you feel the need to criticize, find something to give a genuine compliment on instead.
- Say “Thank you!” This is a big one! When someone compliments you, don’t deflect, don’t contradict. Accept it, and believe they mean it. Then say Thank you!