When I started my weight loss journey never would I have guessed that the hardest part of becoming fit would be accepting mentally my newly sculpted body and its body image! Get 3 great tips and 2 easy exercises that will help you accept your new fit body and overcome the mental obstacle of that fat body image in your head.

I struggled with not seeing the weight loss change my body image in the mirror. I saw the numbers on the scale getting lower and lower, my pants being too big, but I just could not see this change affecting the body image in the mirror. In my mind I was still a fat girl instead of a fit one, no matter what friends and family said about me having a fit body.

Then as the weight loss continued, the feeling of my mind being out of sync with my body image grew stronger and stronger. I felt like an alien in my new fit body, and it was unbearable.

I even considered getting psychiatric help for my body image issues, because it was driving me crazy to live in a body that is considered fit and smaller in size than what I was always used to having – being obese and overweight my whole life. I even thought of stopping the exercises and start eating more, just to get back to my old, big body image size.

Luckily for me, my basic motivation for losing weight was to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle, and not mainly to get a good looking fit body.

Moving back to obese-city is not an option I could see myself being satisfied with again. [Tweet this!]

So I started to search online for help with my body image issues, but could not find anything that would directly help me. People would mention in their weight loss success stories that they still can’t see themselves as thin, or that they are not used to their body image, but that was it. No mentions on how to address this issue of fat body image existing only in your head.

3 tips to help You see Your fit body image after weight loss

Therapists and medical doctors didn’t take me seriously and said that this body image problem will solve itself, and that the fat body image goes away after a while. I tried many things to speed this process up, and here is a list of 3 things that will help you accept your new fit body:

1. Boost low self confidence

Body image issues arise from the fact that your brain has not accepted the image of your new fit body. During your weigh loss you were dissatisfied with your overweight body and fat body parts. This dissatisfaction leads to low self confidence, even when you’ve lost all that fat. So what you need to do is start boosting your self confidence in order to accept your new fit body image.

Here are tips on how to boost low self confidence after weight loss and accept your fit body image:

• Put a photo of yourself on the fridge or another visible place where you think you look better than perfect and look at it often. This helps your mind connect to the fit body image that you see on the picture.
• Take pictures of your body now after your weight loss & compare them to old pictures of yourself. This way the fake fat body image that you are holding on to in your mind and the real fit body image that you actually have now are being compared. It will help you see the changes that your mind did not see on your body before.
• Get yourself a pair of skinny jeans or colored pants that make you keep thinking “Girl, you are hot!”. This will help your mind to start seeing how the weight loss changed the bottom part of your body.
• Go window shopping! Pick something out that you would never have dared to wear while being overweight and try it on just for the fun of it! You will be surprised by how good your new fit body can look with the proper size of clothing!

2. Check for input from other people

People around me noticed my weight loss and positive changes about my body way sooner than I have. It was annoying for a while to address their compliments and answer their questions about my fit body, and I hated it. But looking back now I see that their comments and questions helped me a lot with my mental barriers of accepting my new fit body. Here is how you can ask friends or a significant other to help you with your body image problems:

• Ask someone you absolutely trust what they think about your looks after the weight loss – you might not trust the image in the mirror, but if a friend or significant other points out that your body is actually fit and you are not fat anymore, it is way more likely to stick with you.
• Ask a friend or your significant other to point out someone from a crowd of people who has a similar body size as you –  trust me, it will surprise you! Seeing other people who are similar to you in size will not trigger an emotional response as seeing a picture of yourself would, therefore it’s helping you rationalize your new body size.
• When receiving a positive comment on your new body image from other people, don’t ignore or dismiss – it’s bad manners and you come off as being rude. Don’t try to shy away from compliments about your looks: say thank you for the compliments! Chances are that the other person sees something positive regarding your body size and lower weight that you don’t see.

3. Quick 10 minute exercises for accepting your new body

 You can try both Exercise A and Exercise B to see which one suits you best, and then continue with the one you are more comfortable with. Or you can switch them up, and one day do Exercise A and on other days Exercise B. The trick is to do them for at least a week, and soon you’ll be able to see your fit body image in the mirror, and not just the fat self.

Exercise A: Walk in the dark with closed eyes

• You will need to rely on your other senses in order to navigate yourself. It connects the mental image that you have of your body with the real life body of yours. During this exercise you will need to work with the body you currently have, and not the image of the body that is imprinted in your subconscious. Do this for 10 minutes a day, and you will see improvements in sensing your whole body.

Exercise B: Backward walking

• It works similar to the previous exercise, without closing your eyes. It is challenging to walk backwards because backward walking eliminates the typical heel-strike to the ground – the toe contacts the ground first. It is not just a simple physical activity, it requires brain activity as well. Plus it keeps you stay mentally sharp, puts your senses into overdrive, and it enhances vision as well. You’ll see all these benefits on your mental body image with a 10 minute walk a day for five weeks.

It was these last two exercises (Exercise A and Exercise B) that truly helped me accept my new fit body image.

Looking at old pictures of myself helped too, but it made me overly emotional, so usually I was trying to avoid to look at my old obese and later overweight pictures of myself. Input of friends was useful in seeing the body I had in reality in my mind, because they pointed out things about my body that I hadn’t noticed. A friend I always considered beautiful and good looking with a fit body said to me:  “Look at your tummy, it is flatter than mine!” This was a major game changer for me.

Need more help seeing your new fit body image in the mirror? Get more tips by clicking here >>>