Body Positivity and Body Neutrality: Tips for a Healthy Mindset

Hi, my name is Brooklyn Dreher. I am a dietician here at Tahoe Forest Health System. I primarily specialize in pediatrics and I see adults as well. Today we're going to be talking about body image, primarily body positivity and body neutrality. So, we're going to start off with an exercise. I want you to imagine you wake up in the morning and you're getting ready for your day and you get in front of the mirror. What's the first thing you think of? Is it a positive thought, a neutral thought, or are you gravitating towards a negative thought? If you happen to gravitate towards a negative thought, I want you to be mindful of that. Our brain tends to get into certain habits or patterns and sometimes when we continuously think of negative thoughts especially related to body image it can be hard to break. So I want you to first take that step of noticing and then eventually hopefully you can replace that negative thought with either a neutral thought or a positive thought. So, let's go into what I mean by positive or neutral. So, positive is things like, oh, I love my, you know, um, my features, the shape of my face, uh, my eyes, anything like that. And then a neutral thought is more about the function of your body. Say, "Oh, I love my triceps. Like, I'm working really hard on them and trying to work out and it's starting to show. I like how um strong my legs are. or they can carry me um up a mountain or even just on a walk to school. So again, I just want you to keep this in mind when you step in front of the mirror every day. Really pay attention to what you're thinking, which way your thoughts are gravitating towards and just be mindful of them. And if you feel like your thoughts are more negative, I want you to try and either make them more neutral or more positive. One way you can do this is just by correcting and saying out loud. So, say I'm standing in front of the mirror and I notice I have like a little bit of like a pimple or I don't like my skin or um I don't feel quite comfortable in my clothes. I want you to immediately catch it and be like, "Oh, I'm thinking a negative thought." And recognize it and instead at least give another thought of either a positive or neutral, such as, well, my hair looks really good today or, you know, my legs feel really strong, or I feel really energized and I got a good night's rest and I was been taking care of my body. Those are some thoughts or some examples that you can use. Um and maybe make a list either in a journal or on your phone, somewhere that you can kind of reference back to. And this can help rewire your brain to help you gravitate away from those negative thoughts and more towards a neutral and positive thought. And the reason why I give these examples and talking about positivity and neutrality is to help with your mental health. And why mental health can be so important is it can really help kind of define our day. So if we start off our day with more of a positive or at least a neutral thought, usually we'll have a more positive outlook on the day and overall we can just feel better and lighter and maybe happier. So now that we've kind of talked about the mentality of body image and body positivity, I want to move on to the number on the scale or our weight. So I'm going to be talking about weight versus health and also BMI. So let's start with BMI. BMI is typically used in the medical system to categorize overweight, obesity, things like that. But what a lot of people don't know is that first of all, BMI is height versus weight. So when it comes to body composition, for example, it doesn't take into account muscle mass versus body fat. So I want you to keep that in mind. So if you do happen to have a more muscular frame, BMI doesn't really take that into consideration. So for example, take Dwayne the Rock Johnson. Um he's pretty known for his like big muscles and on the BMI scale he would be considered in the obesity category. So again someone who is his same height, weight, age and gender they may look different have a different body composition. So they may have say more um body fat and less muscle and that's where BMI doesn't really take into account those factors. So again, please keep that in mind. Now, I'm going to talk about weight versus health. So the number on the scale doesn't always indicate health. It does correlate uh but not cause chronic illnesses. What I mean by correlation is they go hand in hand, but one factor does not cause the other. So obesity doesn't cause diabetes but typically whatever led to say that weight gain like lifestyle factors such as physical inactivity uh higher uh intake of processed foods, more sedentary lifestyle. Sometimes mental health and even genetics can play a role. The number on the scale doesn't always indicate health. For example, if you have a lot of muscle, you are likely to weigh more, but that doesn't mean you have worse health. And that can be vice versa. Just because you have more muscle doesn't mean you can also be unhealthy. So just keep that in mind that how we look doesn't always indicate health. Think of body weight as a puzzle piece. So in the scheme of your health or the makeup of your health, there are so many different factors and weight is just one of those puzzle pieces. So again, it's a small portion, but not it doesn't make up your entire being, your entire health, and who you are. So moving back into body image, I wanted to give you a couple tips that could help improve just the way you feel about your body. So, a few things. One, wear clothes that fit you. You shouldn't have to fit into certain clothes. So, buy brands that actually, again, fit your shape and size. Another way is to find better influencers online that support body positivity or body neutrality. Uh, and less those who are so focused on their shape and size. Remember photo editing is a real thing especially nowadays with AI. So it's it's just something to be mindful of even right now I have you know lights on me diffused lights that actually helps with you know how my skin appears or the shape of my body different shadowing and lighting and posing. Those are all ways that can change how somebody looks. So again I just want you to keep that in mind. Another tip is to practice body positivity and neutrality. And I encourage you to practice this with people that you trust and love if you can and helping to spread that and make it a practice. Again, the more we do something, the more our brain makes it into a habit and the easier it becomes. So, we're going to do another practice together right now. So, take a minute, take a seat, take a breath, close your eyes, and just breathe. And I want you to think about one thing that you love about your physical body. Do you have it yet? Keep thinking on it. I'll share my example. I love my legs. I love the shape. I love that I've been working really hard on them when I do strength training. And I'm so happy that they get me up mountains when I like to go hiking. And that's kind of an example. As you can see, I used both body positivity, but I also used neutrality. You can practice this as much as you want, but the goal is to try and do it at least once, if not twice a day. Usually in the morning around when you wake up to set yourself up for your day and then when you go to bed at night to again just give you a nice reflective moment to appreciate and give your body some self-love. And the last thing I want you to be mindful of just kind of like in the beginning about your own thoughts in the day is who do you surround yourself with or what do you surround yourself with? And that can impact your again mental well-being. If you have friends or colleagues or um peers who maybe talk negatively about either their own bodies or maybe make fun of others, that can be a negative environment that can eventually make your mindset more negative and maybe even feel less safe to be your authentic self. It doesn't mean that we can't work on our health and have goals for ourselves and even how our bodies look in a sense. But I want you to try to do it from a place of positivity, a place of self-care and less on for the purpose of what others may think. It is understandable. We do want to fit in with our peers and with society, but at the end of the day, you have to remember what is most valuable to you, what's most important to you. And hopefully, one of that is being authentic to yourself to be compassionate towards yourself. Everyone goes through different changes in life. And you know, just trying to figure out your own health and priorities. So again, just remember that the way we think about ourselves, our body image really does impact our mental health and that is part of health. So I just want you to take this practice with you, these thoughts with you. And again, my name is Berkeland. I'm a dietitian here at Tahoe Forest Health System. And have a wonderful day.