Feeling confident in your own skin shouldn’t come at the cost of your self-worth. 

In a world dominated by diet culture, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that your value is tied to your appearance or the number on the scale. But true confidence comes from embracing who you are, not from conforming to unrealistic standards. In this blog, we’ll explore how you can cultivate self-assurance and self-love, without getting caught up in the toxic messages of diet culture. Let’s redefine what confidence means on your own terms.

The Myth of Weight Loss and Confidence

There’s a staggering statistic that 79% of Americans don’t like their bodies, and for women, that number jumps to 91% who have dieted at some point in their lives to try to change their size. We often pursue weight loss for two main reasons: to get healthier and to feel more confident. We’ve been led to believe that losing weight will improve our health and make us feel more comfortable and confident in our bodies.

Here’s where it gets tricky. When you diet and lose weight, it can feel like it’s working. Your health markers might improve, you may feel more comfortable physically, and your confidence might rise because of the praise you receive from others. But this sense of success is a house of cards, ready to collapse. The moment the weight starts to return, those feelings of failure, self-doubt, and frustration come rushing back, leaving you stuck in the belief that weight loss is the only path to confidence and health.

But what if we challenged this assumption? What if, instead of focusing on weight loss, we shifted our perspective on what it means to be healthy and confident?

Shifting Your Perspective From Diet Culture

This shift in perspective has the potential to change your life. It can transform how you see yourself, how you carry yourself, how you eat, how you dress, how you feel around others, and even how you interact with your healthcare providers. I’ve seen this shift work wonders for my clients, and I’m confident it can do the same for you.

The Truth About Body Confidence

Let’s address the elephant in the room: I have thin privilege. It might seem easier for someone in a straight-sized body like mine to talk about body acceptance. However, the strategies and insights I share are grounded in the lived experiences of people in larger bodies and are applicable regardless of your body size. 

This isn’t about your actual weight—it’s about how you feel about your weight and yourself as a human being. If you’ve ever felt like you’d be more confident if you were thinner, you’re not alone. We’ve all been conditioned to believe that smaller is better, that a thinner body is a more desirable body. But this belief isn’t based on truth—it’s based on societal conditioning.

For example, think about clothing stores that only cater to smaller sizes. As a teenager, I remember feeling excluded from “cool” stores like Hollister because they didn’t carry my size. The message I internalized was that my body was wrong, that I wasn’t good enough. This is just one way society teaches us to equate thinness with worth.

Another example is before and after pictures. These images perpetuate the idea that weight loss leads to happiness and confidence. The “after” pictures often show someone smiling and looking more confident, reinforcing the narrative that losing weight is the key to feeling good about ourselves.

How To Boost Your Confidence

Here’s the truth: Confidence doesn’t come from the number on the scale. It comes from learning to accept and love your body as it is right now. It’s about challenging the societal norms that tell us we need to be smaller to be better. 

The first step in building true, lasting confidence is to recognize and reject the messages that tell you your worth is tied to your weight. Start focusing on what makes you feel good in your body, regardless of your size. This might mean finding clothes that fit and flatter your body as it is, practicing intuitive eating, or setting boundaries with people who comment on your weight.

Ultimately, confidence is an inside job. It’s about how you feel about yourself, not how much you weigh. If you’re ready to start building that confidence, I invite you to join my free masterclass, where we’ll explore these concepts in more depth and give you the tools you need to navigate the balancing act of body image and intuitive eating. We’ll talk about that tricky “messy middle” where you’re stuck between knowing that dieting isn’t the answer but still feeling the desire to lose weight. I’ll share tools and strategies to help you navigate this space so you can continue healing your relationship with food without slipping back into the dieting trap or giving up on yourself. 

This live masterclass will be available at three different times next week, starting on September 10th, so you can choose what fits best into your schedule. And if you can’t make it live, don’t worry—I’ll send you the replay.

Remember, you don’t need weight loss to feel confident. What you really need is to shift the way you see yourself and your body. And that’s something you can start working on today.

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Search for Episode 129: How to Increase Your Odds of Binge Eating and Gaining Weight

Looking for more support on your journey to food freedom and body acceptance?

• Join my Facebook group & community “Intuitive Eating Made Easy”
• Take my FREE quiz “What’s Your Unique Path to Food Freedom?”
• Save $120 on HelloFresh, my fav food delivery service!
• Check out my course, Non-Diet Academy