Why Focusing on Weight and Weight Loss will Bring You Further From Your Goals
Feb 19, 2024
Jamie Magdic
Embark on a transformative journey with us as we tackle the heavy burden society places on weight and body size, and how this singular focus can wreak havoc on our emotional well-being. Get ready to uncover the beauty of embracing body diversity and the importance of nurturing a positive relationship with food, as we chat with a renowned expert in the field. Together, we'll break down the walls of unrealistic beauty standards by cultivating a deeper understanding of self-acceptance and the celebration of inner beauty that transcends the superficial measures often glorified by the media.
This episode is a heartfelt guide along the path to developing a wholesome body image. We share insights on the power of media literacy, the strength drawn from a supportive community, and the profound influence of spirituality in honoring our bodies. Our conversation is an invitation to treat your body with the care it deserves, engaging in balanced nutrition and self-care practices that foster love and respect for the unique individual you are. Join us as we affirm the necessity of detaching self-worth from the scale and stepping into a world where health and happiness are defined on our terms, not by a number.
Embark on a transformative journey with us as we tackle the heavy burden society places on weight and body size, and how this singular focus can wreak havoc on our emotional well-being. Get ready to uncover the beauty of embracing body diversity and the importance of nurturing a positive relationship with food, as we chat with a renowned expert in the field. Together, we'll break down the walls of unrealistic beauty standards by cultivating a deeper understanding of self-acceptance and the celebration of inner beauty that transcends the superficial measures often glorified by the media.
This episode is a heartfelt guide along the path to developing a wholesome body image. We share insights on the power of media literacy, the strength drawn from a supportive community, and the profound influence of spirituality in honoring our bodies. Our conversation is an invitation to treat your body with the care it deserves, engaging in balanced nutrition and self-care practices that foster love and respect for the unique individual you are. Join us as we affirm the necessity of detaching self-worth from the scale and stepping into a world where health and happiness are defined on our terms, not by a number.
Speaker 1:
All right.
Speaker 1:
So let's dive into the reasons why focusing solely on weight and body size is going to perpetuate all these negative patterns with food and body image, all right. The first reason why focusing on it is actually going to bring us the opposite of what we're looking for is because what we're focusing on is unrealistic, unattainable, unsustainable body image standards. We know that society promotes these unrealistic beauty standards centered around thinness, centered around one body ideal that's promoted and it leads individuals to consistently strive for these unrealistic, unattainable and unsustainable and unhealthy body ideals, these bodies that we are not meant to be in Body diversity, body shapes. We are all born to be in a different body and there are no good and bad bodies, there are no right or wrong, and that is not what's being sold to us. So we're constantly feeling this responsibility and pressure to obtain this quote, unquote ideal body and when that happens, we are in it for something that's very unrealistic, very unattainable, very unsustainable and very unhealthy. Constantly pursuing these ideals are going to constantly foster these feelings of inadequacy, dissatisfaction, negative body image and a negative relationship with food. So, of course, of course, right there this, by focusing on our weight and size, it's going to perpetuate all these negative behaviors and all these negative feelings when it comes to healing our relationship with body image.
Speaker 1:
All right, the next reason focusing on body size and shape is going to keep us so stuck and going to bring us a lot of negative is because of the emotional distress it brings with trying to attain this ideal body image, with just constantly focusing on weight and size, because it's just really going to take a mental and emotional toll, if it hasn't already, and that just builds and builds and builds. This pressure to conform to the societal beauty standards are going to, for sure, without a doubt, lead to anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and that further exasperates these negative patterns with food and body image, where we don't trust food, we don't know how the heck to eat, we don't trust our body, we're constantly shaming it. We're weight cycling, we are putting it through hell with the diets and distorted eating and turning to body bashing and diets for coping as well for this emotional distress which keeps us in this never ending cycle. All right, the next reason why a focus on weight and size is going to keep you stuck is because it is going to bring you to a very unhealthy relationship with food. Obsessing overweight and body size is for sure going to. I don't see how it can't get to your relationship with food and start affecting your relationship with food. It's gonna distort your relationship with food, how you eat. It's going to lead to disordered eating behaviors, including binge eating, emotional eating, restrictive eating, and this is not only going to negative impact your relationship with body image, but it's also going to impact your relationship with your physical health and it's going to perpetuate these feelings of guilt, shame, self-loathing, reinforcing all of these negative patterns with food and body image. So again, if we're focusing, if you come to me and you say I want a healthy relationship with food that I can trust, now let's focus on losing weight and let's focus on body size and shape Right there. Those two things do not go together and they cannot go together Because if we're focusing on size and weight, that is, we're going to be taking efforts to change size and weight, which are not the same thing as working on having a healthy relationship with food and eating in a way that is good for you, that's healthy for you and promotes your physical and mental health. They're not the same thing and so we cannot focus on weight and size to get a healthy relationship with food okay, and that's often something that really holds people back and it's something really important to assess for yourself and understand.
Speaker 1:
All right, and the last reason I'm going to go over today of why focusing on size and weight are going to keep you stuck and create a negative relationship with body rather than the opposite, positive relationship with body, is because what happens when you focus on body and body size and weight is that you will ignore your individual needs and then, in turn, your health as well. Okay, so ignoring individual needs is what happens when we focus on weight and body size. We start to focus on that and then not focus on our individual, unique nutritional needs, our preferences, our health markers, our values. It overlooks the importance of intuitive eating and listening to your body, cues and learning from your body and being in as a team with your body. It leads individuals to disregard internal hunger, society satiety signals in order to favor these external dieting rules and restrictions that are focusing on obtaining a certain body ideal. So these are all focusing. Ultimately, focusing on body size and body weight just does not equate to and cannot be partnered with truly looking forward to find a healthy relationship with body and food that's sustainable, respectful, actually promotes your holistic health and wellbeing and gets you to a place where you're confident, you're intuitive, you're respectful, you're compassionate and you're feeling trusting and like friends with your body. Okay, so those are the reasons why, when we focus on weight and size, it's going to ultimately keep us stuck and take us way further away from body confidence, not to it? Okay.
Speaker 1:
But then in turn, if we're not focusing on body size and body weight, let's talk about, then the research and let's talk about the research behind what brings positive body image. Why do some people have a positive body image while some people don't? Okay, why do two identical sized people with same weight, same size, same shape, why can they ultimately have totally different relationships with their body? Right? What does one person have that the other person doesn't? And this is a complicated and complex answer, so we're not going to dive super in depth with all of them, but I do want to touch on what the research says. For what does create a positive body image? How can we get there? What do we need to explore? And before we do, I want to again reiterate the research. That research shows.
Speaker 1:
All the research on body image shows that body having a positive body image is not correlating with someone's body size or someone's weight. It does not say people with the ideal quote, unquote body size that's promoted to us, that that thin body. It does not show that they have a more positive relationship with their body than people in larger bodies. That is not shown in the research, okay. So if anything that shows you right there that if you're trying to pursue a better, more positive relationship with your body, it is not going to be in pursuing this thin ideal, okay, According to the research and you know, bring your own experience in it as well All right. So research has uncovered uncovered 10 distinct characteristics of positive body image and why some people have a healthier relationship with their body and can maintain a healthier relationship with their body than others. And these characteristics, I hope they really come to you and serve as a beacon of hope and I'm holding so much hope for you, but I hope it comes to you to illustrate that healing your relationship with body is so indeed attainable Okay, although challenging, it is attainable. Whereas if we're focusing on body size and shape and we are dieting well, we're it's not going to be attainable a positive relationship with our body. However, these 10 characteristics that I'm going to explain to you from the research show that it is attainable, even though it's challenging. So let's go ahead and embark on this journey and explore these 10 characteristics and reflect on how they resonate with your own experience. Okay, all right, so the first characteristic of people with a positive body image is going to be body appreciation. Okay, body appreciation, of course, goes. All of these okay, I'm going to pause.
Speaker 1:
Everything I'm going to name here has a lot of exploration to do with each characteristic. There's a lot to it. There's a lot of practices, there's a lot of undoing and redoing and rebuilding and understanding and assessment and trying new behaviors and learning about what that category means and start implementing it. I just want to name that and I also want you to assess, as we go through these categories when do you think you fall in each of these categories, and then we'll take it one step further. I'm going to hopefully remember. If I don't remember, I'm going to name it now. I do have a quiz. If you go to jmrdcom, there is a quiz where you can go through all of these different characteristics and see where you fall and get an overall. You can get individual body image scores for each category, but also an overall body image score to see where you're at and see where would be helpful to focus on when it comes to your relationship with your body. And what I love about also going through these characteristics is that, to name that, if you're struggling with five of the 10, but three are really strong and one you know is workable and you are you can work on that characteristic. Then it just you can overall improve your relationship with your body as a whole by working on the things that you're able to access and that you feel ready for at this moment to help improve body image overall and then also open doors to other characteristics that might seem a little bit more scary to look into.
Speaker 1:
So anyways, with that caveat, let's get back to body appreciation. So body appreciation involves acknowledging actually acknowledging and feeling the health, features and functions of your body. Okay, so people with body appreciation that actively show and practice and feel gratitude and appreciation of the health, of what their body can do, of the features and functions, of what their body allows them to do in life, rather than dwelling on these perceived flaws, have a better relationship with their body. And of course, that makes sense, right, if we think of this in terms of a relationship with someone else. If we're focusing on someone's flaws rather than the gratitude of what that relationship brings, it's going to impact our relationship with that person. Okay, so there's a lot of power in this. This acceptance and cultivation of body appreciation is really gonna significantly and can significantly impact your relationship with your body in a positive way, and research supports that. All right.
Speaker 1:
The next characteristic is body acceptance. People with a positive body image are shown that they have body acceptance. So, despite societal pressures, individuals with a positive body image feel comfortable in their bodies, choosing to accept their body rather than actively trying to achieve a different body ideal. And this acceptance is a very, very powerful tool in cultivating a self-compassionate, resilient, respectful relationship with your body that's very resilient against all of the like. That's very resilient against negative body image and negative body image messaging okay. The next characteristic that people with positive body image have is inner positivity influencing outer demeanor. That true confidence radiates from the work that you're doing within and how you feel with your relationship with yourself. Those with positive body image exude inner confidence and pride which transcends that physical appearance and all the pressures around that as well.
Speaker 1:
Again, I know I'm quickly going through this. I hate to do it because there's so much to explore in each of them, but we're not gonna do a 10 hour podcast episode. I just wanna introduce this to you and you can explore it more in the quiz. Okay, sorry, took a sip of my coffee there, all right. So broadly conceptualizing beauty is the next item, and I they're all so big, but this is big. This is one of the first things I work on with clients, and that is really to work on understanding what and why you conceptualize beauty the way you do, in a narrow way, because people who are able to broadly conceptualize beauty and they see beauty in diversity that's a hallmark of positive body image. People are able to embrace a variety of weights, shapes and appearances in others and reject these narrow beauty standards and celebrate the inherent beauty within each person. Game changer game changer not easy. Takes work, takes practice takes new behaviors takes, but game changer All right.
Speaker 1:
The next one is media literacy and those with positive body image. They're aware of the media's influence on their body and they choose to use it in a positive way, while rejecting these unrealistic portrayals on social media and really safeguarding their mental health. The next characteristic is unconditional acceptance from others. All right, so this is something. This is a characteristic that's somewhat out of our control, depending on your situation, and that is how you experience unconditional acceptance around your body from others family, friends, intimate relationships, peers, coworkers, just people around you, those who feel valued for their authentic qualities really fosters a sense of belonging and acceptance. So, of course, those who are not bullied, those who are not treated poorly or hear poor, horrible things about people judging their size or casting their own beliefs and insecurities when it comes to body image onto others, of course that's gonna really impact. So we have control and we don't have control over this. It really depends on the situation, but there's definitely could be wiggle room with who you're choosing to be around, but positive relationships based on genuine connections are gonna really bolster that self-esteem and resilience against all these societal pressures.
Speaker 1:
All right, the next one is those who have a positive body image find others with a positive body image, so they are able to keep up a positive body image because they're surrounding themselves with individuals who share very similar values and strive for a healthy relationship with their body, which then creates a supportive environment. All right, the next one is spirituality and religion. For some, spirituality or religious beliefs provide a sense of purpose and meaning and it really transcends that physical appearance and fosters self-acceptance. All right, and I'm saving the biggest one I don't know if I should quantify, but for me and the work I see needing to be done to ultimately really transform your relationship with your body, I mean, they're all really, really important, but this one is big and that is listening to and taking care of your body, people with a positive body image and this is really, really great news for you all. It really was really great news for me when I was working through my relationship with food and body, those with a positive body image. They have a positive body image because they listen to and they take care and respect their body. They do not have disordered eating, they do not diet, they do not listen to those things. They nurture their body with compassion and respect, and this is essential for cultivating positive body image.
Speaker 1:
Now, this comes in all forms of self-care practices, from physical to emotional well-being, well-being that promotes a harmonious relationship with your body. So, of course, when we, when we can think of all the ways from the biggest one in our face, right is going to be food. Your relationship with food, how you're treating yourself with food, how are you treating yourself with exercise? Are you doing this in a punishing way? Is your relationship with exercise punishing or is it nourishing? Additionally, your relationship with your body as far as how you speak to it, your self-talk, how you're shaming it, how you're manipulating it and then it's going to come down to sleep and how you take care of your mental health and your relationships. Okay, so all there's so much to this and a big portion of this is that I find and work with as a dietician, of course is your relationship with their body, and I see so many, so many people's relationship with their body start to transform when they start to work through their relationship with food and find a respectful relationship with food. Now, if they're only doing that and they're not navigating all of these other pieces, it only brings them so far.
Speaker 1:
You have to look at body image and not just your relationship with food. I believe and I have seen so we'll go ahead and close up with those characteristics, but I just want to say again it's essential to recognize that cultivating a positive body image in these different characteristics is a journey and it's individual to you and it's important to go deep. It's important to bring your experience and it's important to leave no stone untermed, All right. So with that, if it's helpful to go take that quiz, I highly recommend it just to see where you're at. Raising awareness for yourself is key. We do. We cannot change what we do not know. Learning about ourself, looking into that is just going to be huge for moving forward for yourself.
Speaker 1:
Now, if you found this helpful and if you are really ready to do things differently, give up dieting, transform your relationship with your body, dive into all of these things in a very big way, get that support. I want you and I want to invite you to DM me the word freedom on Instagram. So jmrd underscore on Instagram and DM me the word freedom and I can send you immediately over a two-day free mini course all about how to transform your relationship with food and body and finally ditch diets and disordered eating and get to ultimate food and body image confidence. So, with that, I want to invite you there and also just say thank you for listening. I hope you were able to find some nuggets in here that are going to help you transform your relationship with food and body to one that you really deserve. Okay, until next time, stay brave, and I am very proud of you all, as always.