6 Simple Things to Improve Your Body Image

I’ve struggled with self-esteem issues my entire life. For the first 20 years I was always self conscious about being too skinny, to the point where I was often called anorexic even though I literally eat more than one would think humanly possible for a 115 pound girl. But in the past three or four months I’ve gained about 15 pounds, and my whole senior year of college has been like that Regina George moment

So I had to rethink every self-confidence hack I had learned up to this point and do something fast to avoid hating myself further. Here are 6 of the simplest things that I’ve found really help the way you view yourself:

1. Train Your Brain

This is by far the most important of them all. Your brain is a muscle that can be easily trained and manipulated to be healthier. Everyone has negative thoughts of themselves, but if you notice a pattern of perpetual negativity it can become a real unhealthy environment up there. Every time you find yourself thinking a negative thought, immediately combat it with a positive one. The key to this is consistency–if you only do this when you’re happy and in a great mood, you’ll never fully train your brain, but if you force yourself to find something positive even when you’re not feeling your best, eventually the negative thoughts will start to disappear altogether. Remember that you have all the power to control where your mind wanders.

2. 10 Minutes of Activity

If you’re like me, you might not have time to exercise daily, and your off days could leave you feeling bad about yourself. But if you give yourself ten minutes of some sort of simple physical activity (I like sun salutations, jumping jacks, and stretching), not only will it have you feeling more accomplished at the end of your day, but it will also get your blood flowing and your body will thank you.

3. Portion Control

I have the most trouble with knowing when to stop eating. I love the taste of food so much, sometimes it’s literally the only happy part of my day, that I will eat until I’m groaning in agony. Imagine Thanksgiving dinner every day. Portion control is not only important for your overall health, but it also helps you to stop feeling like you’re a piece of trash. I haven’t lost any weight after instilling this regime into my every day life, but I have noticed that I feel a lot happier, lighter and when I look in the mirror I don’t think I’m a fat mess.

4. Clothing

It’s a real sad moment when you go to put on some leggings and hear a seam rip–even the stretchiest of your clothes no longer fit. It was heartbreaking having to get rid of all my favorite clothes because they were too small, and it feels even worse having to go to the store and buy a size 8 instead of a size 4. Switch your thinking away from the numbers and towards how you feel. Looking in the mirror and feeling confident because you don’t have rolls hanging over the top of your jeans, or shirts that actually button up over your boobs is a feeling better than being able to say you wear a tiny size.

5. Take the Selfie Challenge

Sure you might have to take 90 pictures before you find one that you like, but looking back and realizing you aren’t as unattractive as you thought at the time is extremely beneficial to your overall body image thoughts.

6. Avoid Negative Thoughts About Others

Something that goes hand in hand with the negative thoughts about yourself is negative thoughts about what other people look like. If you’re constantly picking out all the qualities of someone you find so undesirable, why would you (or anyone else) be kind to yourself? Having low self-esteem is usually directly seen in speaking negatively about others because then the focus is off of you. But if you find all the amazing things you love about people, you’ll be more likely to find those in yourself as well. And the people that surround you will see that too.