You made it, 2 weeks in.
Whether you stuck 100% to your plan and commitments, or varied a little bit, you are still here.
Reading these emails, knowing you want to make a change.
So in that sense, you made it.
Today I want to talk about a pretty big topic – body image.
I would confidently estimate that every single person doing this challenge has had body image concerns at some stage in their life.
You may be doing this challenge BECAUSE of your body image issues.
You certainly aren’t alone.
I got an email from the wonderful Merry Maker Sisters with this headline:
98.5% of women want to change something about their body.
Woah.
They are running a nationwide survey to really dig into the numbers of body image and self-esteem.
Sure we know it’s not good, but 98.5% want to change something?
It went on to say:
Over 50% of the women were aged 11-20 when they first realised they wanted to change something about their body.
20% of women were under 10 when they discovered they wanted to change their body.
I was under 10 when I first weighed myself and decided that the number, whatever that was, was too high.
What does a 10 year old even weigh?
Somehow I had internalised that a scale dictated how I should feel about my body.
We might blame the media, friends, females in our lives etc etc but ultimately, it’s up to us to find the ways to overcome this.
It wasn’t until I started getting into health and fitness that I finally started feeling GOOD about my body.
I’m not finished, cured or over it but I have learnt a lot along the way so here’s a few tips that might help you.
Take one, take them all and add your own.
Start a body gratitude practice.
Studies show that gratitude is a VERY strong key to happiness. Each day, focus on one thing about your body you are grateful for. It might be long legs, great hair, nice eyebrows, the ability to run, healthy digestion, freckles, pale skin… whatever. Find your thing. Focus on it and find a new one every day.
❤️ Remove all ‘comparison junkies’ on social media.
Stop following the yoga girl who just poses in barely-there leotards. Remove the fitness model who has never been overweight in her life. If it makes you feel bad – even just for a second – ditch it.
❤️ Step back from the mirror.
No one looks at us as closely as we look at ourselves. No one can see those larger pores, wrinkles or stretch marks. So back up on the mirror and the criticism. While you’re stepping places, step off the scale.
❤️ Identify connecting happiness to weight/health/appearance.
If you ever think “when I lose xkgs, then I’ll be happy” or some variation of this, it’s important to recognise this thought pattern and catch it out on its BS. Talk to anyone who is your ‘ideal weight’ or body and you’ll quickly find that all your troubles don’t go away when your body changes.
❤️ Connecting health with power and feeling good.
I no longer eat Keto to lose weight. I do it to feel good, in control of my eating (not letting FOOD control ME) and so I can do more with my body. I can do more gym classes than ever before. I can go on a hike and not eat all day. I can wear more clothes that I like. These things make me feel powerful and this is why I continue becoming healthier – not to lose weight.
❤️ It seems to get better with age.
Each year I seem to give less f***ks about what others think of my body and a little less about what I think of my body. I think his is because I am getting better at doing the above tips, and gaining more confidence in who I am as a person, not just as a chunk of meat with cellulite. I am so much more than that, and I’ll probably always have cellulite 🙃
I hope some of these tips are helpful to you, and we can all lift each other up on this difficult journey of self love,
Love,
Rachel xx
The Aussie Keto Queen
