Every Monday features a tip, activity, inspiring quote or some other tidbit that helps boost your body image, whether directly or indirectly — and hopefully kick-starts the week on a positive note!

Got a tip for improving body image? Email me at mtartakovsky at gmail dot com, and I’ll be happy to feature it. I’d love to hear from you!

{via etsy by Shira Sela}

One of the things I love about the Internet is the opportunity to read an array of beautiful work. I’m not only inspired by other bloggers, but I’m reminded that I’m not alone. I’m reminded that others have struggled like I have, and understand where I’ve been.

I’m reminded of what’s most important. I’m reminded of my own beauty and the beauty of others.

And I gain so much wisdom about the process of healing my own body-bashing and self-image issues.

{via etsy}

Now that you’re familiar with the many types of “fat talk” (see here and here), you can start working to eliminate it.

In her book, The Woman in the Mirror: How to Stop Confusing What You Look Like with Who You Are, Cynthia Bulik, Ph.D, Director of the UNC Eating Disorders Program, explains that eliminating fat talk consists of two tasks.

One is to establish a fat-talk-free zone in your mind. The second is to establish a fat-talk-free zone in your environment.

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A few days ago, I was writing a piece on body appreciation for Psych Central. I shared activities from a helpful book called Five Good Minutes in Your Body: 100 Mindful Practices to Help You Accept Yourself & Feel At Home in Your Body by  Jeffrey Brantley, M.D., and Wendy Millstine, N.C.

One of their tips is to take a media break. That made me think about how easy it is to spend many minutes or even hours reading women’s magazines and doing other things that damage our body image — including, but not limited to: weighing ourselves, reading diet books, watching shows like The Biggest Loser, and even browsing Facebook. Which can turn into an “everyone is better than me” and “I wish I were thinner, prettier, and …” moment (minute or hour).

It’s amazing to consider all the different things we could be doing instead of worrying about our weight, instead of tearing ourselves down. Even if it’s cleaning the house, it’s better than doing something that chips away at our self-image.

We might not realize it, but we’re deeply influenced by the words we read and the images we see. All these negative influences can leech onto our brains and drive the negative thoughts about our bodies and ourselves.

So, today, let’s talk about the many things we can do instead of spending time on body image stealers (whatever that might be for you). These activities can take a few minutes to a few hours, depending on how much time you have.

Yesterday, I introduced you to Deah Schwartz, an author and ardent supporter of  Health At Every Size. She challenges our society’s narrow standards of beauty and health and helps people develop healthier relationships with food, their bodies and themselves.

Below, Schwartz talks all about weight stigma and what we can do to fight it. She also offers fantastic advice on navigating the negative media we’re exposed to day in and day out.

Q: Why do you think weight stigma is so deeply entrenched in our society? Where does it come from?

A: I often ask myself that question.  Why the hate? Why the deep disdain? I mean as far as I’m concerned it is ok for people to have personal preferences about what an individual finds “attractive” or not.  For example, some people are completely dazzled by redheads, others, not so much.

But you rarely hear people voice a deep hatred or disdain for us “gingers.”

Every Monday features a tip, activity, inspiring quote or some other tidbit that helps boost your body image, whether directly or indirectly — and hopefully kick-starts the week on a positive note!

Got a tip for improving body image? Email me at mtartakovsky at gmail dot com, and I’ll be happy to feature it. I’d love to hear from you!

In our society, we walk around with a lot of expectations on our shoulders. I picture many of these expectations as a dumbbell stacked on top of the other, resulting in a heavy pileup of weights — and lots of exhaustion.

There’s the dumbbell that represents appearance. There’s the one that represents perfection, which is intertwined with appearance, weight and shape. And many others that probably fall under the theme of “Be everything to everyone, do it all and make it look easy, while wearing six-inch heels.”

{via etsy}

For years — and to an extent today — I’ve struggled with an apology addiction. I’d say I was sorry if someone bumped into me, if I had a question, if I had a difference of opinion, if I spoke out of turn.

But more often than not I’d also apologize for my appearance. I wouldn’t explicitly say “I’m sorry for my weight” or “I’m sorry for my looks.” But my behavior would ooze with apology.

Maybe yours did or does, too. Maybe you also don’t specifically utter “I’m sorry,” but your actions scream it.

{from Epcot’s exhibit}

Yesterday I wrote about why shaming doesn’t work. Today, we’re talking about another company that’s jumped on the shaming and myth-perpetuating bandwagon: Disney World.

I actually like Disney, so this makes me sad. If you haven’t heard about it yet, basically the theme park Epcot created an exhibit called “Habit Heroes,” where kids are encouraged to fight bad habits.

These bad habits, sadly, are associated with bigger bodies. As you can see by the image above, “Snacker,” “Lead Bottom” and “The Glutton” represent the villains. And their large bodies send a clear message to kids: Big is bad. Big is a villain. (The protagonists are Callie Stenics and Will Power, who are slim and trim.)

(Here’s a video of the exhibit.)

Fortunately, Disney shut down the appalling exhibit. Unfortunately, it still doesn’t change the fact that the big guns behind the happiest place on earth thought it was a good idea.

(There were also supporters in the comments of some of the posts I read; I had to stop reading because my blood was boiling.)

And this, again, shows our society’s lack of understanding about obesity and health. That’s why I’m pleased to present a guest post by Marsha Hudnall, RD, MS, who provides clarification below.

Hudnall is a board member of the Binge Eating Disorder Association, and owner of Green Mountain at Fox Run, a women’s residential health retreat in Ludlow, Vermont. Green Mountain uses a non-diet, body-loving approach to health and healthy weights.

I’ve interviewed Hudnall before on Weightless. (Here’s our interview about weight stigma.)

{Learn more about this image here}

Our society assumes that shaming is an effective strategy to get people to lose weight, in order to, you know, get healthier and take better care of themselves.

(Not true, of course; you don’t need to lose weight to get healthy; you can just adopt healthy habits.)

That we need to be brutally honest with fat people and stop coddling them. They need to know, in very blunt terms, that they’re too big and too unhealthy.

I’ve gotten comments like this here on Weightless. And while I appreciate a difference of opinion, these comments make me cringe, and they make me frustrated.

{via etsy}

Being part of Body Image Warrior Week has introduced me to several brilliant bloggers I wasn’t familiar with before. One of these bloggers is Caitlin from Fit and Feminist. I love her powerful post about today’s narrow physical standards, and I know you will, too. It’s empowering, beautiful and oh-so true!

Recently, I came across a blog post by a personal trainer in which she explored the one of my least favorite terms as applied to women’s bodies – the word “bulky.”  Any weight-training woman is familiar with this term, as it is often the first thing other women will say as their reason for refusing to lift weights.  The idea is that lifting weights will lead to the development of big muscles, and the development of big muscles means a woman will no longer be beautiful and will instead be manly, unattractive, scary and doomed to a sex-free, love-free life.

Can you leave the house without wearing makeup? If you can, do you still feel good about yourself — or not so much?

What role has makeup played in your life? Is it a  tool to enhance your features, a fun way to experiment or a security blanket?

According to a 2011 survey conducted by The Renfrew Center Foundation, almost half of their female sample reported having negative feelings when they don’t wear makeup. They either feel unattractive, self-conscious or like something is missing.

Can you relate?