5 Ways To Start Accepting Your Body Here and Now

We can describe body acceptance in three stages:

1. Body Tolerance:

   I may not like my body how it is, there are parts I can say I strongly dislike, but I am working to “tolerate” those parts.

2. Body Acceptance

   I feel neutral about my body. I do not hate or dislike my body, however I do not love my body.

3. Body Appreciation

   I can say there are parts of my body I love. I feel no disgust or hatred towards my body. I appreciate what my body looks like and what it allows me to do.

What stage do you feel you are in?

It is also normal to oscillate between a couple phases, especially when this is new to you.

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Lets talk about how to get to the Acceptance stage.

Consider this to be the neutral stage. There will be hard days and easier days. Sometimes we feel confident and other times we may want to hide. However, the majority of the time we are feeling neutral about our body. Recognizing your body for what it allows you to do is sometimes an easier part of this stage than learning to like how you look. For example, I’m grateful I have two strong calves because I am strong and can jump, leap, and squat.

There are always triggers that make it difficult to stay in the stage of Body Acceptance. At first, you may need to spend more time being mindful of these triggers and go out of your way to make your relationship with your body a more peaceful space.

Here are 5 things you can do to help yourself remain in the space of Body Acceptance, and perhaps work towards Body Appreciation.

1) Diversify Your Feed

Social media plays a big role in how we view and love our own bodies. You may not realize it, so check your social media feed now and see what kind of bodies are represented? Do you see mostly one gender or sex? Mostly one color body? Do you see any self-expression such as tattoos, colorful hair, etc. Do you see mostly fitness influencers or models? Do any of these bodies look like yours?

I am not one to celebrate social media, I do see the harm it does to many of my clients. However, social media has also been an amazing space for positive change and movements. There is a body positive movement going on right now. There are amazing influencers, dietitians, and therapists on social media doing their best to portray positive messages and reduce fat shaming or body stigma. You can diversify your feed by following more fitness influencers in different body sizes, or add to the food accounts you follow with intuitive eating dietitians!

Social media can become a positive place, but it is all in what you make it. If there are things that are too triggering, you may find it more healing to get off of social media all together. You could also delete your page and create a new account, a fresh start! I can say without shame, my Instagram is mostly intuitive eating/body positive, cats and plants!!

2) No More Comparing

How many times do you catch yourself thinking, “I wish my X looked like theirs.” Or even wanting to ask “You are so thin! What do you do?”

These are thoughts are so negative and can cause a lot of hard to your mental health and relationship with your body. Reframing these thoughts, or using distraction can be one way to combat them.

Reframing is the act of changing the first thought that comes to mind when you are comparing your body to someone else’s. For example, the original thought is, “I wish my body looked like theirs.” Reframing this looks like saying to yourself, “They are a beautiful person, but just because my body doesn’t look like theirs doesn’t mean I am not beautiful also.”

It can be hard to not compare or have negative thoughts about your own body. One thing you can do today is write a list of parts of your body you like or are neutral about. Too often we think about the things we don’t like about ourselves. Let’s spend a little bit of time complimenting ourselves!

3) Wear Comfortable Clothing That Fits Today

The clothing you wear is a constant daily reminder of how you feel in your own body. Do you have clothing in your closet that fits you at your current size? What about under garments?

Its not uncommon to hold on to old clothing that fit you while you were a smaller size. Often our clothing has a lot of memories attached to them and it can be hard to get rid of them. However, hanging onto clothing can be harmful to how we perceive the way we “should” look. Donate the clothes, you will always have the memories.

When shopping for clothes, tell yourself that you are going to buy clothes that fit your body today.

4) Affirmations

Consider what you tell yourself throughout the day, what is your self talk like? I know affirmations sound cheesy, but imagine if we talked to ourselves all day in affirmations?

Changing how we talk to ourselves can help change the way we believe in ourselves and how we view ourselves. Having trouble thinking of affirmations? There are a lot of Apps that create affirmations for you and send you them throughout the day as a little reminder.

All this step is asking you to do is talk to yourself the way you would talk to a friend. You’re worthy of that.

Here are some affirmations to get you started:

“My body is worthy of nourishment.”

“I’m not going to sacrifice my mental health to have the perfect body.”

“I am strong.”

“I am powerful.”

“I am worthy of love.”

“I give my body permission to change.”

“I will allow myself to find pleasure in food without feeling guilt or judgment.”

“I am beautiful no matter how my body changes.”

“I am worthy of the time spent on healing my relationship with food and my body.”

Looking for more ideas? Check out our Instagram for more affirmations.

5) Focus on Health, Not Weight

Believe it or not, health does not equal weight.

Research has shown that it is more important to focus on what makes us feel good and healthy behaviors than changing your weight. If you’re wondering what this could look like, think about things you can ADD to your life such as more whole foods, more walking or stretching, more socializing with friends and laughter.

When you limit or restrict yourself, this typically moves us further from positive changes than not and has more opportunity to hurt our physical and mental health.

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Body Appreciation is a journey, no one gets to that place overnight, or even over the course of a year. It is something to work hard at every day but ultimately leads to the most freedom and happiness.

We’re here cheering you on!

Food, Why Can't I Escape It?

“You’re the apple of my eye”

“You’re so cute, I could just eat you up!”

“There's nothing like Grandma’s cooking”

“You’re sweeter than pie”

Food is everywhere. Its in our stores, on our commute to work, people eat every day, its on our billboards, in our sayings, in songs and advertisements. Just like I tell my clients, the hardest part of seeing a dietitian when you are someone who is struggling in their relationship with food is having to face the fact that food is everywhere. It is hard to sit in a room with a dietitian and talk about food for the entire hour. Eating disorders and disordered eating is a huge burden on individuals. Food is not something you can escape, avoid or ignore.

I suppose some of you reading this could look out your window and see a restaurant, grocery store or food stand a stones throw away. The war we let our emotions set on food is a war without an ending. Spoil alert, your emotions will lose eventually.

Food is neutral. It is not intentionally trying to harm you, give you a chronic disease or alter all the work you put into changing or maintaining your appearance. Your emotions and beliefs that you cast on food is what is effecting those things. Food is actually trying to help you! To keep you alive, to feed your organs and keep you young. Food is not the enemy.

Food is the scapegoat. Society tells us over and over “carbohydrates will give you diabetes.” Or shouting diet statements at you such as “Lose weight quick by participating in a 20 hour fast!” - surely we all can understand the concept of starving ourselves by not eating for 20 hours can cause weight loss… because you’re not eating!! But does fasting work for everyone? Not really, no. Because no matter how hard we try to fight our biology, our body will do whatever it can to protect us and get the energy it needs during the other 4 hours your emotions allow it to eat.

Ok, i’m off my soapbox now.

You all know this. I’m not telling you anything new. I may be telling you something you don’t want to hear, and that is, you can not escape food.

But really! Why would you want to escape food?! How amazing and easy life would be if you could walk into Panera and not immediately have to think about calories, what else you ate today, what is the “cleanest”, what is balanced, etc. I have had almost everything on Panera’s menu and I can tell you, you will survive. Your body is much stronger, much more resilient than you think. When was the last time you gave your body the chance to prove to you it can handle all the foods in the world? (Minus those with allergies of course :P).

Think of your body as the sweet, precious child you are too afraid to let grow up. Would you starve that child? Keep them isolated and unable to try new things? Eventually all you are doing is causing the child more harm in the long run. Give the child some of their own control. Its ok to start small so you can learn one step at a time that the child can handle the power it is given. Eventually the trust will come and the burden will be lifted from your shoulders. Your relationship with the child will be that much stronger and trust will come easily.

If this is too hard to do on your own, that is where a dietitian, a therapist, a doctor, significant other, etc. comes into play. Everyone needs support and that is what we are here to provide. To help your body win the war.

Food may feel like the enemy right now, and that’s ok. But you can’t escape it, so lets first learn how to live with it.

Orthorexia- When Healthy Eating Becomes an Obsession

Do you eat healthy? Great! Do whatever works for you and makes you feel good. Bamboo Nutrition in Columbia, MO is one place to look if you feel your healthy eating may becoming an unhealthy obsession.

Orethorexia is a termed coined by Steven Bratman. What began as an individual wanting to eat healthy for their own reasons (i.e. energy, longevity, activity, etc.) turned into an obsession. This obsession with healthy eating caused social anxiety, withdraw, irritability, poor sleep, and much more. The thought of food consumed this person’s thoughts all day and night. At this point, this individual may have orthorexia.

Steven Bratman’s definition of Orthorexia states: “Orthorexia is an emotionally disturbed, self-punishing relationship with food that involves a progressively shrinking universe of foods deemed acceptable. A gradual constriction of many other dimensions of life occurs so that thinking about healthy food can becomes the central theme of almost every moment of the day, the sword and shield against every kind of anxiety, and the primary source of self-esteem, value and meaning. This may result in social isolation, psychological disturbance and even, possibly, physical harm. “

In other words, When healthy eating becomes unhealthy.

Don’t get me wrong, just because a person eats healthy and likes to eat organic or follow the latest trends in the food industry does not mean they have orthorexia.

Steven Bratman’s self-test is a good place to start:

The Bratman Orthorexia Self-Test*

If you are a healthy-diet enthusiast, and you answer yes to any of the following questions, you may be developing orthorexia nervosa:

(1) I spend so much of my life thinking about, choosing and preparing healthy food that it interferes with other dimensions of my life, such as love, creativity, family, friendship, work and school.

(2) When I eat any food I regard to be unhealthy, I feel anxious, guilty, impure, unclean and/or defiled; even to be near such foods disturbs me, and I feel judgmental of others who eat such foods.

(3) My personal sense of peace, happiness, joy, safety and self-esteem is excessively dependent on the purity and rightness of what I eat.

(4) Sometimes I would like to relax my self-imposed “good food” rules for a special occasion, such as a wedding or a meal with family or friends, but I find that I cannot. (Note: If you have a medical condition in which it is unsafe for you to make ANY exception to your diet, then this item does not apply.)

(5) Over time, I have steadily eliminated more foods and expanded my list of food rules in an attempt to maintain or enhance health benefits; sometimes, I may take an existing food theory and add to it with beliefs of my own.

(6) Following my theory of healthy eating has caused me to lose more weight than most people would say is good for me, or has caused other signs of malnutrition such as hair loss, loss of menstruation or skin problems.

*There are many self-tests on the internet to use in determining if you may have orthorexia or be on the verge of developing orthorexia, however, this is the only self-test that Steven Bratman approves.

Why Self Care?

You may be thinking, “I don’t need self-care. That’s for people who need therapists and yoga.” Mmmmm….. Not quite.

Self care is something us mental health professionals preach and preach because surely enough, we all could use some TLC.

What does self-care look like?

• A bath or shower

• Curling up with your fur baby, or real baby!

• A nap

• Doing something that makes you feel beautiful such as buying new makeup, getting a haircut, getting your nails done

• Finding a place in nature and being by yourself

• Going for a walk or to a work out

• Baking

So many forms of self-care! But really, it comes down to doing what re-energizes YOU.

Self care is for all of us. It’s for when our battery needs recharged. When we’ve had a bad day. When our motivation is low.

Bottom line. Self care means taking care of yourself. And we all need it.

Don’t keep pouring from your cup without refilling it. In order to be the best version of yourself and serve those around you, you must take care of yourself too. It is not selfish, it is only giving back to yourself so you can continue to brighten those around you.

What’s your self care?