Positive Self Esteem

We've heard a lot about " Fat Talk" lately in the news... this is not a new epidemic, but what is it?

Healthy body image is the best gift we can give to ourselves!

For some of you who may have not heard of this new slang, it refers to the verbal banter of self-depricating talk women partake in that encourages us to not only talk about something we feel is a flaw, but to agree and then match the statement with another flaw. Sounds like a lot of fun, right? This is certainly the opposite of having a positive self image. You may be sitting there saying, "Well, that just sounds ridiculous!" Well, we do it without even knowing that we do it! That's the tricky part of this plague...we are so accustomed to it that we don't even see it to be a problem.

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"I ate a million slices of pizza yesterday. I must have gained ten pounds." One woman sighs as she sits across the table from her girlfriends. The statement has little likelihood to be factual...no one can actually eat one million slices of pizza. Duh.

This statement is met with a typical response. "Oh, I know. I have on my fat pants because I've been eating like a pig this week. It's awful." Thanks to the film, A Christmas Story, we can all develop a mental picture of how one "eats like a piggy", but we can all rest assured that this woman is certainly using a figure of speech and not covered in mashed potatoes at this point.

This is Fat Talk. We continue to put ourselves down in order to either receive compliments, shame ourselves for not having the ideal bodies and/or commiserate with our girlfriends in the negative self body images we all develop though many factors in our lives. The media influences, the celebrity diet articles or the occasional family members pass the traditional self-destructive linguistics down the family tree  like it's as genetic as the curvy behind you got from your Mom...these are all working against the positive self-worth we all have as a child.

So here is the deal. This article may be one of many giving you a slap on the hand for doing something that is certainly programmed into us from the media or overbearing relatives, but it certainly is something to think about... that maybe one day, when we stop comparing ourselves to each other that we can truly be happy with ourselves and instill that in others. Something that we can start with is daily affirmations and keeping realistic about what beauty is within us (and on the outside as well.)

How do you define beauty?

#realtalk