Accepting Your Body Image As You Age * Spotlight My Health

Struggling with accepting your body image as you age? We all do. Social media plays a big role in how we feel about ourselves. Everywhere we look, we get the message of “the skinnier, the better” or less wrinkles, the better. But I think people are slowly coming around.

More and more, we are seeing curvy women in the media. JLo and Beyonce have helped make it OK to have curves. Hallelujah!! Retailers have finally started supplying plus sizes. Again, Hallelujah!!!

Now we just need to change our own mindset and start accepting and liking our bodies, as is. But how do we do that.

My Profound Thought On Accepting My Body Image

Somewhere along the way, I came to understand that if I didn’t like myself, no one would. And I had to be me. It’s waaayyy to hard to keep up with the expectation of others.

Besides, I’m a believer in a higher power and one day I was thinking about how I was always cutting myself down with my own critical inner thinking. Why was that?

I had a profound thought that day. I believed that the good Lord had made me, and he knows what he is doing, so why am I cutting down what he had made.

Kinda hit me that I needed to change my way of thinking. I’m criticizing what He had given me instead of enjoying it. After all, I can breath, I can run, I can sing, etc. So many glorious things I can do with my body without even thinking about it. I’d even had babies.

He had made sure I could do all these wonderful things with my body, so I needed to stop cutting it down.

Berating our bodies has never made anyone I know change anything, so why continue doing so. What is the purpose other than to make ourselves continually feel bad? I say we should strike against our inner criticism and figure out how to stop!

Body Image and Age

As we grow older, we also have to add in the little things that come with age. For instance, I have arthritis which means, my joints ache, my knees don’t like stairs and my hands can get really stiff. However, I figure, that if that’s all that happens as I age, I’ll consider myself lucky.

And I know that our body image can deteriate with age as we see the lines, the cellulite, etc., but it is something that we have to work on in order to continue to live the type of life we want. Don’t let your negative body image hold you back. Not when you may be at a time in your life where you are more free able to do things that you’ve always wanted to.

How To Change Your Mindset On Accepting Your Body Image

First let’s get something straight. Just because we may have come to realize the fruitlessness of our self-criticism, it doesn’t mean we should stop trying to be healthier. If you physically don’t feel well, then ya gotta do something, even if its just walking 20 minutes three times a week.

That brings me to the first step.

Stop and Accept

Stop the self-criticism. Accept that you want to stop berating yourself. You are tired of it and it just isn’t worth the effort it takes to keep up the self-criticism. When you do this you’re ready to move forward.

And I won’t even ask you to stand in front of the mirror and for the last time, look at yourself and just get it out of your system. Criticize everything you can think of. Then it really is time to just move on.

Stop the Insanity of Social Media

Stop following and looking at all the social media that contributed to you not liking yourself. Simple as that—cold turkey. You might be surprised at how much this will help you shut down the negative voices that try to creep back up.

If you are really stuck on social media, then replace what you’ve just gotten rid of with those that you admire for their positivity. Known for liking themselves.

Be your own advocate and surround yourself with those that already think the way you are working toward. Body positive is the name of the game.

What “was” Doesn’t Matter

Stop thinking about how your body “should” be or “used” to be. I can’t tell you how many women say to me, “But, I used to only weigh 110lbs, why can’t I get down to that size again”? Turns out that weight was when they were 18 years old.

Why do women continue to think they are supposed to stay that size their whole lives? At that point in time, your body may not be finished growing or settled into itself. You are not a true adult yet and you probably have not had babies yet.

All this affects your body and size. Try and remember to stop thinking of the “size” you used to be. It was right for that point in time but may not be, at this point in time.

Stop What Freaks You Out To Help You Accept Your Body Image

Change or stop what freaks you out. There is absolutely no reason to step on the scales everyday if doing so causes you to freak and spiral out of control with the self-criticism.

Make A List

Ok, here’s the corny part. Sit down and make a list of all the good things that you like about yourself. No one else will see the list, so be honest. And let’s keep the list to 10 things. For instance, I like my skin.

These are the things you need to concentrate on from here on out, so take a pic of your list and keep it in your phone. (I know you all have a phone handy all the time—no excuses).

This is for reference when you start to regress backwards.

See Yourself As A Whole

Now when you look in the mirror or think of yourself, make sure you see and/or think of yourself as a whole complete person. You are no longer all the little individual parts that you don’t like.

See yourself as other people do. They don’t tear every little part of you apart. They are just like you and look at someone as a whole person who is beautiful from the inside out. Isn’t this what you do when you look at another person (for the most part)?

That’s what you have to learn—to look at yourself as a whole person. Not the separate parts as you’ve been doing.

Replace Negative with Positive

Replace your negative thoughts with something positive. And you have to have your positives thoughts figured out ahead of time, so that you already know what positive things you can change your thinking to when the body negativity starts knocking at your door again. Remember that list I had you come up with earlier—Here’s where you use it.

Or you can decide to pull up memories of different happy times. A vacation that makes you feel good; the last time your hubby told you he thinks you’re pretty, or awesome or just down right hot stuff.

Have these things in your mind and ready to take over the negative with these good positive thoughts when the need arises.

Self-Care and Body Image

We all need to spend time on ourselves doing something that we like and just for ourselves. And no guilt. When we take care of ourselves, we can then take better care of everyone around us. See my post on self-care for more info on this.

Self-care also plays two rolls. It lets your body know that you appreciate it. Do something like take a nap, a bubble bath or have a mani/pedi.

It also satisfies your thinking as you have a little smile there somewhere in the back of your head waiting to come out, because you paid attention to yourself. Let it!!

In other words, use the time that you would normally use to cut yourself down by changing to something positive.

Unique and Worthy

Remember you are unique and therefore worthy. “You” are a lot more than just the sum of what your body looks like. You have tremendous love for those around you, you have values, many friends, a family that loves you, you take care of lots of things, etc. These things all make you worthy. A value to those around you.

woman with a positive body image as she ages

Gratitude and Affirmations

Practice gratitude for your body by using affirmations. Staying neutral and showing respect to your body on a regular basis will help you to accept your body.

Start in the morning when you finish brushing your teeth. Say a simple affirmation to yourself such as “I’m working on liking what I see and for now I can accept what I see. I’m more than just my body and I’m worthy”.

Additional Suggestion to Accept Your Body Image

This is an additional suggestion. Go through your closet and only keep things that you truly like and are comfortable. Anything that pulls or doesn’t fit right will just make you miserale while wearing it, so just get rid of those items—including shoes!

Instead, replace pieces with new clothing items that are age appropriate, make you feel good and fit well.

Final Thoughts

Many of you know I’ve been on my own journey of weight loss, so I too have had to remind myself of these things I’ve just written.

I will soon have to begin looking at new clothes and I’d rather go into that endeavor with a renewed positive body image of myself. So, I hope my reminder will also help you.

I encourage you to throw out all those old beliefs of being a certain size and all the other negative images of yourself. Instead open your eyes to the brillance of yourself as a whole person.

Let me know if you have anything to share about how you came to accept your body image.