Size and Self-Acceptance for Achieving
Healthy Weight
If we let ourselves, we may start to believe that magazine
cover girls (whose photos are air-brushed and trimmed in,
mind you!) are the norm and that the rest of us are somehow
deeply flawed. What we get then is the soundtrack "I
hate myself" or "I hate what I see in the mirror"
playing over and over again in our heads, fueling our endless
dieting cycles and painful frustration.
"If you are caught up in not liking yourself because
of your size, it quickly starts whittling away at your motivation,"
says Marsha Hudnall, MS, RD, Green Mountain's program director.
"That inner voice makes you feel helpless and hopeless."
Self-Acceptance: The Key to Achieving
a Healthy Weight
If we are to have any measure of success, it is crucial that
we permanently press stop on that soundtrack and work to genuinely
accept our sizes and, by extension, ourselves. Hudnall, who
has more than 20 years' experience in the weight management
field, knows this can be a tough sell for women with lifetime
struggles with weight. But she's not suggesting that size
acceptance means denying the importance of healthy weights.
Denial is not acceptance. Rather, self-acceptance
means adopting a non-judgmental attitude toward yourself.
It's the ability to see things as they are in the moment without
harmful, self-critical voices interrupting your view of yourself.
Hudnall has seen it again and again in women who come to Green
Mountain: Self-acceptance is instrumental to reaching your
healthy, natural weight. "Size-acceptance means focusing
on the things you like about yourself while working to modify
what you don't like," she says.
For women who have been listening to the self-disgust soundtrack
forever, size acceptance is also pretty scary. Does accepting
yourself the way you are imply that change may be impossible?
Mimi Francis, the behavioral health therapist at Green Mountain,
has a simple response to those doubts. It should resonate
even with the most diet-savvy cynics. "How well has not
liking yourself worked so far?" she asks. The truth is,
it hasn't. In fact, if you dislike your body, it's that much
easier to abuse it.
So the aim then is to get your attitude to work for
you, not against you. Self-acceptance means acknowledging
where you are now, and not repeating the mantra "I'll
like my body when…" or "If only I looked like...."
One helpful definition comes from Annette Colby, RD, author
of Eating Peacefully, an online newsletter. She suggests
that self-acceptance means unconditional appreciation and
support for who you are now, including all the elements
that you want to change.
Silencing Your Inner Critic
This view of self-acceptance respects the diversity of healthy,
beautiful bodies, rather than the pursuit of an idealized
weight that may come at dangerously high physical and emotional
costs. The pursuit of the impossible, all the while disparaging
the actual, is one of the most formidable stumbling blocks
we put in our way. The self-critical reflex is a difficult
one to subdue. But silencing it is a crucial component to
living a healthy, fulfilling life, and attaining healthy weight
and fitness goals.
Here are a few questions — some from Colby's newsletter,
some from behavioral classes here at Green Mountain —
to really think about on your way to increasing your own self
and size acceptance.
- What are some of the feel-good things
you can do now for your body? Make a list of what
you enjoy. Walking, swimming, taking your kids to the park,
getting a massage or manicure are all possibilities. By
nurturing your body as it is now, you can begin to feel
comfortable with yourself.
- What is the most positive reason
for accepting your body? What is scariest?
- Where is your idea of the "perfect
body" coming from? What does perfect mean to you?
- How would accepting your body right
now affect your life? (Really imagine how your daily life
would be different.)
- Try to make a list of all the things
you're going to do when you lose weight. You know you have
that list — hiking, going out with friends dancing,
meeting someone new, buying a fabulous outfit, really treating
yourself well. What does it mean to you to put all this
on hold? What would it mean to do these things now?
- If you accepted your eating style
and body, what could you learn about yourself?
- Go to a local mall or park and indulge
in a little people watching. Find people who don't have
cover girl looks but who you find attractive. What makes
them look good? Is it their clothes, their attitude, smile
or posture? Where does it seem like their beauty and confidence
are coming from?
Start loving yourself today!
For 37 years, Green Mountain at Fox Run has
developed and refined a life-changing program exclusively
for women seeking permanent strategies for healthy weight
loss and health. More than just another weight
loss retreat and spa, Green Mountain combines proven
science with what works in the real world, to offer an innovative
non-diet lifestyle program. Our core weight
loss program offers an integrated curriculum of practical,
liveable techniques that helps women take charge of their
eating, their bodies and their health. Unlike health
spas or adult
weight loss camps, our approach is not focused on just
losing weight but on how to keep it off for a lifetime.
Our participants' long-term weight
loss success is among the highest of any program, as
documented in peer-reviewed scientific literature. Learn
more about our fitness
and healthy weight loss retreat.
©2007
Green Mountain at Fox Run, Ludlow, Vermont. This information
is the property of Green Mountain at Fox Run. Permission
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