2640: Body Image: How to Love the Body You Have by Chalene Johnson on Body Acceptance & Mental Health

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[00:01:00] more. That's wonderfulpistachios.com. This is Optimal Health Daily Episode 2640, Body Image – How to Love the Body You Have by Chalene Johnson of chalenejohnson.com and I'm Dr. Neal Malik. Welcome to another edition of Optimal Health Daily. This is one of just a few

[00:01:20] podcasts in the world where blogs are read to you and on this show, you get the added bonus of hearing my commentary at the end. Oh, and another bonus – on Fridays, I answer your questions!

[00:01:32] Now, to check out our other shows, just search for Optimal Living Daily wherever you're hearing this. But for now, let's get right to today's post and start optimizing your life! Body Image – How to Love the Body You Have by Chalene Johnson of chalenejohnson.com

[00:01:54] Today I want to talk to you about making some minor changes that will leave you feeling a lot better about your body. When I was in high school, a very popular outspoken individual made a comment

[00:02:05] about my butt being big. When they made the rude comment, I ignored them because I wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of affecting me with their hurtful words. However, I realized later

[00:02:16] that the comment actually did affect me. Is my butt too big? Is there something wrong with my butt? Should my butt be smaller? I wasn't totally aware of it but the comment actually stayed with me for

[00:02:28] years to come and somewhat dismorphed my opinion of my body. Flash forward to a few years ago, I posted a video on my Instagram of me doing a routine that targeted the glutes. Most of the

[00:02:38] comments were the typical positive responses of, yes, I love it or I need to try this out tomorrow and so on. But there was one comment that said something to the effect of, why would you post

[00:02:50] this? You have no butt. The comment reminded me of how I felt in high school. All of a sudden, I was doubting my butt. Do I not have a butt? What's wrong with my butt? Is it too flat?

[00:03:02] The bottom line, I took a hard look in the mirror and realized that I wanted to train my body to look the way I wanted it to look. I don't care if someone else thinks my butt is too big or too small.

[00:03:12] I want to train my body in a way that makes me feel confident and strong. So I started lifting three times a week and I loved the progress I made. I loved my body and because I did,

[00:03:24] I didn't care what others thought. When you improve how you feel about your body, it does so much for your self-esteem. And there is research that supports the idea that when you have a more positive view of your body, your body tends to cooperate with you

[00:03:39] and you'll experience better results. Before I dive into my suggestions, I want to get real with you for a moment. Like, really real. Get close. Lean in. I really want you to hear this. If you don't like yourself and your body, working out like crazy,

[00:03:57] doing tons of cardio, lifting non-stop isn't going to change your mindset. Sometimes the issue is deeper, deeper than the surface. So my hope is that these tips will get you moving in a more positive mental direction on how you view yourself when you look in the mirror.

[00:04:15] Start this process by becoming more aware of your own personal negative talk. Even though it might feel weird to look at yourself in the mirror and say, you're hot or I love my shoulders and I

[00:04:27] love how strong my legs are. Even though that might feel strange and uncomfortable, it is actually a proven technique that is used in behavioral therapy. This is about becoming your own body image advocate. Tips to feel great about your body.

[00:04:42] 1. Continue to hang with your friends but when the conversation turns to negative body talk, redirect the conversation elsewhere. If you don't feel comfortable directly changing the topic, then shift the topic to creating a plan. What routines work for you?

[00:04:58] What exercise routine leaves you feeling amazing? Talk about action you've taken. Share what's worked for you. 2. Catch your negative self-talk. Acknowledge that it's negative, acknowledge that it's not based in truth and then find something positive to say about yourself. 3. Use post-it notes. Post positive

[00:05:21] affirmation anywhere in the house that you know are negative triggers. 4. Limit activities, social interactions, social media and any kind of interaction that makes you feel inferior. Avoid anything and everything that triggers you to have negative thoughts about your body. 5. Rethink getting on the scale.

[00:05:42] If getting on the scale makes you feel bad about yourself, then why are you getting on the scale? Yes, measuring and tracking your progress is important. However, you and I both know that

[00:05:51] the scale is NOT the only way to do that. And, your weight can fluctuate multiple pounds day-to-day and hour-by-hour depending on what you've eaten, how much water you've consumed and if you've had

[00:06:03] a bowel movement. There is a side to us that has been conditioned to believe that, regardless if we like what we see in the mirror or if our clothes fit better, the scale is ultimately the deciding

[00:06:14] factor. And 6. Set up small wins. Don't set yourself up for failure by creating unrealistic expectations or goals. Create small, attainable, measurable goals and congratulate yourself when you achieve them. You just listened to the post titled, Body Image – How to Love the Body You

[00:06:36] Have by Chalene Johnson of chalenejohnson.com and I'll be right back with my commentary. Dr. Neil here for my commentary. I want to discuss something Chalene mentioned about negative self-talk. Negative self-talk is part of human nature. We can't avoid it.

[00:06:53] So statements like, there's no way I can do this or I'm not smart enough or it's all my fault are normal. As Chalene said, the trick is to acknowledge that those thoughts will happen

[00:07:06] but to try and find something else positive to say about ourselves. In fact, researchers studied what type of self-talk is most helpful particularly when we're exercising. They had participants complete a 20-minute cycling workout. The researchers found that those that used negative

[00:07:24] self-talk statements towards the end of the 20 minutes like, my legs are tired did much worse when compared to another group. This other group also experienced negative self-talk but with a catch. They added a challenging statement to it. So instead of saying, my legs are tired and

[00:07:43] stopping there, this group would say, my legs are tired but I can push through it. That was the challenging statement, the but I can push through it part. So again, understand that negative

[00:07:58] self-talk will happen but if we can follow it up with something positive to say about ourselves, it might actually improve our performance. Alright, that'll do it for another edition of

[00:08:09] Optimal Health Daily. Thank you so much for being here. I hope you have a great rest of your day and I'll be back here tomorrow with another post and where your optimal life awaits!