“I Feel Fat!”: How to Combat ‘Fat Feelings’ and Love Your Body
🌟 Here is something you can do when you say, “I feel fat!” to help you fight those fat feelings and love your body and your life.
Do you have fat days? You know the day where you wake up feeling disgusting and gross. Your clothes fit differently. Your body feels uncomfortable, bloated, and lethargic. You just feel gross. These days totally suck and your whole day will be ruined. There were times when I would stay home and cry myself to sleep because I felt so fat. I let my body keep me from having fun. You feel fat and feel so uncomfortable so you want to stay home and cancel your plans. You feel irritable and annoyed with your friends. You know they don’t deserve it, but you just feel so fat and gross.
Rather than focus on what feels fat and gross about your body, do this instead:
• Spend time thinking about your body. 🧠
• Don’t avoid your body. 🚫
• Focus on your body. 👀
• Pay attention. 📝
• Honor your body. 🙌
Don’t let the fat feelings keep you down.
Let’s not focus on how uncomfortable your body feels. Rather let’s shift your thinking to feel better about yourself and your body. There is a tendency to avoid things when you feel fat and uncomfortable. You have a long list of things that help you feel better when you feel bad. This may seem uncomfortable at first but this is going to help you get control of your mind so that you can start to feel better.
Spend time thinking about your body.
Think about how strong and capable your body is. Think about how helpful your body is. Because of your body you are able to enjoy things. You can have fun with friends and family. Your body allows you to walk around and move so that you can experience life.
Don’t avoid your body.
Your body nourishes you. Your body tells you when you are hungry and tired. These fat feelings are telling you something is wrong. If you feel fat, rather than take it out on your body, think about what is going on in your life. What is stressful or causing you to feel anxious and worried? That is not your body’s fault. Place blame on the thing that is upsetting you, not your body. Your body did nothing wrong.
Focus on your body.
Let’s focus on the body part that is causing you to feel fat. Acknowledge all the ways that body part is helping you live life and do well in life. How has your body part helped you today?
Pay Attention.
Pay attention to how your body feels and what it did for you today. Write all these things down. Start a journal and write down all the ways your body helped you and protected you today. This will help you challenge thinking on fat days.
Honor Your Body.
Love your body. It is wonderful and special. It is doing great things RIGHT NOW. Your body is helping you RIGHT NOW. Your body is taking care of you RIGHT NOW. Thank your body for all the ways it is helping you.
Feeling fat is a lie the brain likes to use to make you feel terrible and awful. Our brains do not always get it right, so you don’t have to believe everything that pops up in there. You can choose how you want to think about yourself and your body.
This is not easy, but it is possible.
You can learn to love your body and love your life. You can learn to challenge disordered eating thinking and behaviors. You can learn to have confidence and self-acceptance. If you find you are having trouble with this, please ask for help. There is a lot of good support and help out there for you. ❤️
If you find this information helpful please share. This is a very complex issue that cannot be addressed in a 5 minute video, but feel free to ask questions and comment. Perhaps there is something I can help clarify for you.
Still not sure if you have an eating disorder? Here is a self-assessment: NEDA Screening Tool. This quick tool is to help you determine if you have an eating disorder and if you should get help. Visit NationalEatingDisorders.org to find help and get more information.
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