Fit Villains: Selfish, Shameless, Sassy, Fitness.

“I have always been overweight - I honestly cannot remember being considered thin. So, in elementary school and all through college, the stigma stayed with me, and I judged myself because I thought other people judged me too.

One day I decided I’d had enough. I was going to love myself, (because, let’s face it, I’m AWESOME), and not let other people get me down. I needed ways to practice body acceptance, and here are a few things I’ve learned.

1) Get a massage. Not only are they really relaxing, but just the act of someone touching you when you feel so self conscious helps towards acceptance. It may seem kind of weird, but that is the first thing that helped me get over my body image issues. And you can always ask your masseuse to just work on your back and arms (that’s what I do), and cheap massages are available through local massage therapy schools.
2) Walk around naked. It’s NAKED time! This is probably the weirdest thing, and honestly, I had a hard time working up to this. But there’s this sort of thing of being afraid of the unknown, and if you’re always covering up your body, you don’t really know it. You come to love certain parts of yourself, and the human body is just amazing - for everyone.
3) Do something to be proud of, every single day. Whatever “proud” means to you, do it. That could mean having a meaningful spiritual experience that day, working out like a beast at the gym, solving a very hard problem, or cooking a delicious meal. Then at the end of the day, you know you’ve not wasted it. The two suggestions above were about body acceptance, but this one is about SELF acceptance. When you love yourself, you’re on a path to loving ALL of yourself.

It’s hard and sometimes all I see is a dumb, lazy mess, but overall, I’ve had more good days than bad since I started loving myself. Because let’s face it, I’m awesome. And so are you!