How to Accept Yourself and Love Your Body Now

If you’re on a health coaching site, you’re probably interested in changing something about your body. Maybe there is something that, if altered, would make your life better in some way. Maybe you want to lose weight, get “in shape”, and/or look like the models we see on TV (or, instagram, tiktok, movies, wherever). Maybe you have been influenced by the countless impressions of a standardized beauty ideal. 

While coaching can indeed support the goals of losing weight and increasing physical activity, it is imperative to consider why these goals are important to you. That requires digging a little deeper, past the superficial (in its most literal definition, “the surface”), the exterior. 

Consider: How will your life be better by losing weight? What will you be able to do with a thinner body that you can’t currently do? Why are those important to you?

While I can’t deny the evidence that overweight and obesity may contribute to several known chronic diseases and it may be in your best interest to lose weight for your health, I also can’t deny the culture cultivated around body-shaming, of bullying based on exterior appearances.  

My effort as a coach is to support individuals in the prevention of chronic diseases caused by modifiable lifestyle behaviors, that is, lifestyle choices that can be changed/altered.

• Does eating junk food lead to an increased risk of heart disease? Yes.
• Can you choose to eat less junk food and therefore lessen your chances of developing heart disease? Yes. 

But, shaming or fear mongering anyone into anything is not sustainable. Lasting lifestyle changes happen because an individual wants them to happen and chooses to follow through with the steps necessary to make them happen. 

It doesn’t happen overnight. Which is why it’s important to accept, love, and honor your body now, currently, as it is. 

• Your sense of self-worth isn’t dependent on what shape your body is in.
• You are worthy of love, respect, care, attention, surviving, and thriving, simply because you exist.
• You don’t have to prove anything to be valid.
• You are valid now, already.
• You are whole, now.
• Everything you need to succeed in your individual life is contained within you.
• You have the answers to your desires. 

Importantly, you aren’t broken. Even if you aren’t where you’d like to be, you are already whole. As well, you are resourceful, and you are capable of change, if you want to. 

While I support you on your quest, I do so with unconditional positivity and empathy, listening for the strengths that confirm your inherent abilities. 

Ultimately, your goals are yours. I have no preference what you do with your life. But if I can encourage you to love and understand yourself, I will do that. 

May you find strength in your intentions and the internal light to guide your way. 

I’m here for you if I can be.  

Nat

n@youdoyouhealth.com

References

Ahn, S., Barakat, S., Boehmer, K. R., Erwin, P.J., Murad, M. H., Prokop, L.J. (2016). Health coaching interventions for persons with chronic conditions: a systematic review and meta-analysis protocol. Systemic Reviews, 5(1). doi: 10.1186/s13643-016-0316-3

Bains, A., Rashid, M. A. (2013). Junk food and heart disease: the missing tooth. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 106(12), 472-472. doi: 10.1177/0141076813512297

Farrell, Amy E. (2011). Fat Shame: Stigma and the Fat Body in American Culture. New York: NYU Press.

National Institutes of Health. (2020). Health Risks of Being Overweight. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/weight-management/health-risks-overweight