dietgirl24
Full Member
I think self-awareness is knowing your good points and bad points. That is step no 1 and I can safely tick that off.
I do think self-acceptance is a one day at a time thing though. It is ongoing, I don't think there is a "final" destination. It's interesting I say that because I've always been the type of person to say "what will I do next?" instead of enjoy the moment..is this tied into it I wonder? And I can get pretty restless with life for no apparent reason too.
I do think that self-acceptance means being good to yourself even when you're at your worst. Even when you've gained weight, still saying to yourself "it's okay, I can get this off and I will get it off and keep it off and I will treat myself much better in future".
It's showing ourselves some compassion..it's easy to be kind to yourself when everything is going great but when things go wrong for whatever reason, that is when the self-blame can set in. And what is the point of blaming ourselves or others? It is what it is. You can either fix it or not. Don't get me wrong, I'm not totally Zen or anything but I would like to be
I think there is societal pressure on people to "have it all"-it's something I discussed in another post but it's related to this topic too. People think "oh they're so sorted compared with me" when the truth is, everyone has a problem of some kind so people really aren't all that different deep down, once you scratch away the surface/trappings like wealth, social position etc.
The media wants women to be "other than" what we are. Women have to be 6 foot-never mind that you're 5'2 and will never grow! Just buy some heels! The fashion industry promotes a homogenous look despite the fact that women come in all different shapes and figures. It seems like everywhere you look, you see homogeny-even in the high street, all the clothes shops sell the same type of clothes, promote the same trends etc. Individuality isn't a very sellable concept.
It's the same with men too..men have to all have 6 packs, despite the fact that some women, like me, actually don't even like 6packs! I prefer lean and toned look anyday That's how advertising works-preying on people's insecurities and making them think there is "something wrong with them" when they're completely normal for their demographic range.
Women's magazines make their money of telling women about the latest diet and all the information is totally contradictory. One week its about "the fibre diet" where you can eat more fibre. The next week, its Dukan where you cut carbs.. etc. I mean, which is it??
I do like self-help books but sometimes I do think that marketing departments are just jumping on the bandwagon and exploiting people's misery. I also feel that bad news will sell better than good news.
I read a summary of "The Beauty Myth" by Naomi Wolf which basically went along the lines of "women are being oppressed by the beauty industry because men still are the financial breadwinners". Basically in cultures where men have the most money, more emphasis is placed on women's appearance. In cultures where *women* have the most money, more emphasis is placed on men's appearance and the men doll themselves up for the women..I never thought of things like that before but it gave me another interesting view to consider.
Also, there is a "dog eat dog" culture in the world really so even when you are doing well, not that many people are going to compliment you..people will be jealous of your success etc. This is another factor to take into consideration.
Parenting can be an issue too.
I think people can think they are "broken" when in fact, they are anything but broken. Maybe they've been mistreating themselves because they didn't think they were worth anything. But they can stop this bad habit right now. That's all that is..a bad habit that can be unlearned right now. Because we are worth it. I know that's from the L'oreal ad but it wouldn't be such a famous slogan if it wasn't true!! We are all worth it. And when we know we're worth it, we eat well, we exercise, we treat ourselves well, we spoil ourselves and know that we deserve our weight loss and success.
But having said all that, you have to believe yourself even when no one else does. This is the key to self-acceptance. This means believing in yourself *all* the time-if things are going bad, you know you can turn it around. you believe that you can do it.
Oh and we don't need to wait until we've lost weight to accept ourselves and treat ourselves well!! x
I do think self-acceptance is a one day at a time thing though. It is ongoing, I don't think there is a "final" destination. It's interesting I say that because I've always been the type of person to say "what will I do next?" instead of enjoy the moment..is this tied into it I wonder? And I can get pretty restless with life for no apparent reason too.
I do think that self-acceptance means being good to yourself even when you're at your worst. Even when you've gained weight, still saying to yourself "it's okay, I can get this off and I will get it off and keep it off and I will treat myself much better in future".
It's showing ourselves some compassion..it's easy to be kind to yourself when everything is going great but when things go wrong for whatever reason, that is when the self-blame can set in. And what is the point of blaming ourselves or others? It is what it is. You can either fix it or not. Don't get me wrong, I'm not totally Zen or anything but I would like to be
I think there is societal pressure on people to "have it all"-it's something I discussed in another post but it's related to this topic too. People think "oh they're so sorted compared with me" when the truth is, everyone has a problem of some kind so people really aren't all that different deep down, once you scratch away the surface/trappings like wealth, social position etc.
The media wants women to be "other than" what we are. Women have to be 6 foot-never mind that you're 5'2 and will never grow! Just buy some heels! The fashion industry promotes a homogenous look despite the fact that women come in all different shapes and figures. It seems like everywhere you look, you see homogeny-even in the high street, all the clothes shops sell the same type of clothes, promote the same trends etc. Individuality isn't a very sellable concept.
It's the same with men too..men have to all have 6 packs, despite the fact that some women, like me, actually don't even like 6packs! I prefer lean and toned look anyday
That's how advertising works-preying on people's insecurities and making them think there is "something wrong with them" when they're completely normal for their demographic range. Women's magazines make their money of telling women about the latest diet and all the information is totally contradictory. One week its about "the fibre diet" where you can eat more fibre. The next week, its Dukan where you cut carbs.. etc. I mean, which is it??
I do like self-help books but sometimes I do think that marketing departments are just jumping on the bandwagon and exploiting people's misery. I also feel that bad news will sell better than good news.
I read a summary of "The Beauty Myth" by Naomi Wolf which basically went along the lines of "women are being oppressed by the beauty industry because men still are the financial breadwinners". Basically in cultures where men have the most money, more emphasis is placed on women's appearance. In cultures where *women* have the most money, more emphasis is placed on men's appearance and the men doll themselves up for the women..I never thought of things like that before but it gave me another interesting view to consider.
Also, there is a "dog eat dog" culture in the world really so even when you are doing well, not that many people are going to compliment you..people will be jealous of your success etc. This is another factor to take into consideration.
Parenting can be an issue too.
I think people can think they are "broken" when in fact, they are anything but broken. Maybe they've been mistreating themselves because they didn't think they were worth anything. But they can stop this bad habit right now. That's all that is..a bad habit that can be unlearned right now. Because we are worth it. I know that's from the L'oreal ad but it wouldn't be such a famous slogan if it wasn't true!!
We are all worth it. And when we know we're worth it, we eat well, we exercise, we treat ourselves well, we spoil ourselves and know that we deserve our weight loss and success. But having said all that, you have to believe yourself even when no one else does. This is the key to self-acceptance. This means believing in yourself *all* the time-if things are going bad, you know you can turn it around. you believe that you can do it.
Oh and we don't need to wait until we've lost weight to accept ourselves and treat ourselves well!! x
