Mirror mirror on the wall… Why body dysmorphia is no joke. Moving from hate to like to love.

When I was 9, I had the best body.

Sounds ridiculous?

I was a bean pole. Tall, long and thin.

The best body, right?

Then puberty hit. And hips happened. Then boobs happened. All that is cool, but confidence and love didn’t come with it.

Self-love was far away. Food became comfort. And so, began the beginning of a treacherous journey of a love hate relationship with food and my body.

I have been anywhere from 215lbs to 140lbs and now to 165lbs from 180lbs.

It would take a long time for me to recount all my life with weight and food and I am no novelist. (As you can tell by the writing style thus far). :

But what I would like to put out there is that

• 1. It will take time to change from body hate to body love
• 2. There is a body like in the middle
• 3. Never compare your journey to someone else’s – since they could quite possibly be on chapter 60 while you are on the Introduction.

There is a reason why FierceMODA was born. Because I knew what it was like to feel empowered when I felt incredible in my outfit and what it felt like to hate everything I put on and have that mood stay with me into the day and night.

So here are a few ways that you can move to loving your body: (baby steps)

• 1. Remind yourself that your body is incredible and that you are so lucky to have it.
• 2. Accepting your body is one of the first steps. This is the body like step (I made it up). You may not believe yourself right away if you scream “I LOVE MY BODY!” so let us start with, I like it. It’s ok where I am right now”.
• 3. Go to the FierceMODA private Facebook page and see other women celebrating their outfits that are great for their body type. (I know it’s a shellfish plug but its true. FierceMODA is about empowerment and finding clothing that makes you feel incredible).
• 4. Donate clothing that does not fit anymore. I am so guilty of this, but let’s be honest: my jeans that I fit into when I was competing in fitness competitions, before birthing 2 children will not fit because my body just isn’t that shape anymore. Bless and release. Bye-bye.
• 5. Focus on strength and health and not the scale. I coached women with health and weight for years and I always told them “take measurements, throw out the scale”. The scale is a random number generator. Do an experiment: weight yourself every hour one day. Let me know how ridiculous the numbers are. I’ll wait….
• 6. Surround yourself with incredible women…like all of us at FierceMODA! Women who are rooting for each other and supporting each other naturally lifts your spirits!
• 7. Be careful what you say to yourself, because you’re listening. When you realize you’re saying something negative in your head, snap out of it immediately! Replace it with a, “HEY! I’m working on it! And that’s a hell of a lot better than nothing!”

These may seem simple, but you will be very surprised at how much it helps when you try them for a while.