Body Acceptance And Weight Loss

You might be asking yourself what accepting your body as it is now has to do with weight loss. You might even think that the notion of accepting your body right now is  ridiculous if your goal is weight loss. When I present this concept to clients, they initially look at me like am crazy. What I am about to say may blow your mind or maybe you will stop reading this article because you will think that I have lost mind. In my experience (personal and professional), the more you shame your body, the less likely you will lose weight. The argument I get from others on this is that they believe if they stop shaming themselves and accept their body “as is”, they will go off the deep end, never to return. The reality is that the more you shame yourself and the more you hate your body, the more you will sabotage your efforts. You will NEVER be able to lose weight and keep it off if you constantly berate yourself. That is a fact. No matter how little you eat and how much you exercise, your body will betray your weight loss efforts at some point if you continue to be critical because it won’t be enough. Eventually, you will give up and return to emotional eating as a means of comforting yourself. Your old friend emotional eating will step in to soothe you when it can’t take anymore. Jon Kabat-Zinn sums it up best in this quote, ” Acceptance of the present moment has nothing to do with resignation in the face of what is happening. It simply means a clear acknowledgement that what is happening, is happening.” Hating your body will never make you love it. It will never make you feel better about yourself. It will never bring you happiness. Accepting your body does not mean giving up your weight loss goals. Accepting your body simply means that you cannot change it IN THIS MOMENT. It does not mean that you can’t make changes period. Weight loss does not have to be your way of punishing your body for betraying you. It can be you giving yourself what you need to be able to feel better physically. Today, take one step toward body acceptance. Acknowledge that your body will never be perfect, but it is the only one you have, so you need to treat it well.

 

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Michelle Lewis

Michelle Lewis

Michelle Lewis has a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Weber State University and a Master's degree in Social Work from the University of Utah. She has been working in the mental health field since 2001.
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