5 Tips for Navigating a Bad Body Image Day

Have you ever woken up, started getting dressed and ready for your day, looked in the mirror and something was just “off”? You didn’t feel confident, you didn’t feel like yourself, and you didn’t love what you saw looking back at you? Maybe your jeans felt a bit tighter, maybe you felt bloated or maybe your outfit didn’t fit you the way it used to.

Let me be the first to tell you, you are not alone. No matter your age, the size of your body or your relationship to food and exercise, we all experience it. This is what we call a bad body image day. You might find they happen more often in some seasons and less in others, but they find their way to us nonetheless.

So what do we do? How do we navigate these days?

Rather than immediately jumping to action, blaming our bodies, our choices or our genetics, and then picking up a new diet trend and exercise routine to “fix” the problem, what if there was a different solution?

Here are a few simple steps to keep in your back pocket for when that bad body image day finds you...

Speak to yourself with kindness

How you talk to yourself matters. If you constantly berate, talk down to and think negatively about yourself, it will begin to affect your mental health. On bad body image days, it’s particularly important to speak kindly to yourself. This can look like reframing your thoughts, or gently reminding yourself of what your body can and does do for you, rather than what it currently isn’t doing or what you don’t like about it. For example, rather than “I hate the way my legs look in these pants” try: “I may not like the way my legs look today, but these legs are strong and take me where I need to go”.

Wear clothes that fit

Clothes have a very important role - to fit our bodies, just as they are. Diet culture often leads us to believe that we should work to fit into certain sizes and styles of clothing, rather than believing the clothes are here to serve you rather than you serving the clothes. On bad body image days, wear clothes that are comfortable and fit you properly. This might look like wearing sweatpants or a flowy dress instead of slacks or jeans for the day. Allowing your body to just “be” while comfortable clothes will be more impactful than you might think when navigating poor body image. If you spend your day uncomfortable in clothes that aren’t serving you, it will likely be hard to think about anything else but your body.

Listen to Hunger + Fullness Cues

Taking action to correct a bad body image day can be really damaging and make it harder to move on from this day. This could look like engaging in intense exercise, restricting certain food groups or eating under a certain amount of calories. Rather than trying to take corrective action, it’s important to honor both your hunger and fullness. Allowing yourself access to adequate fuel with all food groups for meals and snacks while also listening to your body when it is full or satisfied, will work to build mind-body trust, even on the hardest of body image days.

Engage in self-care

Taking care of your body, regardless of how you feel towards it is a vital part of navigating bad body image days. An important part of self-care is honoring hunger and fullness cues, as mentioned above, but there are many other ways to ensure you are caring for yourself on these days. This might look like spending a little less time looking at a screen, getting some fresh air or joyful movement, or perhaps some much needed rest or a nap? Self-care can look a lot like warm bubble baths, candles and a good book, but it can also look like spending time with a loved one, setting boundaries or going to bed early to get enough sleep.

Repeat Affirmations

Having affirmations in your back pocket are important for any day, and can play a huge role on a day that you aren’t feeling great about what you see in the mirror. This can be done in a notebook (like our Food Freedom Journal) if you prefer pen to paper, or in a note taken in your phone. Affirmations are only powerful when we utilize and exercise them through repetition. Perhaps they live on a sticky note on your bathroom mirror, on your desk, or on the fridge - somewhere you will see it often throughout your day. Affirmations can look like “I love my body”, but they can also look like “My body is not a to-do list of things to be fixed” or “I was made for more than spending my life working to shrink my body”. When starting out, it can be challenging to come up with these affirmations on your own - which is why we have created affirmation cards for you!

So remember, bad body image days are normal, and you are not alone when you experience them. With these tips you can work to experience less bad body image days, but also know exactly what to do when they do come around.