A really important part of health and fitness is embracing body positivity and looking at everything related from a holistic perspective.
Too much of the industry these days is focussed on how we look, and too much of our goals are built around trying to look like celebrities and influencers. This isn't sustainable, isn't healthy and most importantly is terrible for your mental health.
Moving away from the scale and designing goals that are more holistic is an important first step in moving away from this. Setting goals such as:
Performance related goals: running a certain distance, lifting a certain weight, playing or performing in a certain sport.
Feeling related goals: finding it easier to walk a lap of the lake, finding more energy to play with your kids.
Health related goals: improved health markers, improved symptoms of illness or disease, getting sick less often.
Mental goals: more self-confidence, more energy, improved sleep quality, less self-doubt.
As you can see the focus on these goals is how we are performing, how we are feeling or our health. All things that are so much more important than just a number on the scale.
Obviously this is a big change for a lot of people, so how can we best embrace and encourage others to have body positivity:
Surround yourself with people who are positive and support you.
Identify negative self-talk and develop strategies to stop it.
Accept compliments.
Give compliments not related to appearance.
Learn to embrace your body, and be thankful for all that it does and can do.
Stop comparing yourself.
Use mindfulness techniques.
Learn to ignore negative comments.
Challenge your negative thoughts.
Call out bad language and unrealistic standards.
These are just a start, but will help with going a great way to building a positive and encouraging environment for everyone involved. This is a key goal for us here at S&T STEPS and something we are constantly working towards.
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