The Idiot's Guide to Being Body Positive

One of the better trends happening in the fitness arena is the push towards body positivity. There are so many amazing people on Instagram putting themselves out there and embracing their bodies. It's something that needs to be said, seen and heard by everyone regardless of size.

That said, when I was beginning to get my fitness back I saw these (mostly) women simply expounding about loving their body. I wanted that feeling. I wish I had curves to love, but being a dude, that is one thing that I won't get to do.

What I don't see often is people talking about how they learned to love their body. It got to the point where not feeling great about my body made me feel worse! So, here are some of the steps I took to work towards better body image. Feel free to try them, change them, tell me they suck or ignore them entirely.

1.  Appreciate Your Basic-ness: No, I'm not talking about the Boomerang you just took of clinking glasses at your work happy hour. I'm talking about appreciating your breath. Literally appreciating the ability to breathe. Start with the basic stuff and show yourself some gratitude for the simple act of being alive. You need a base level of self-appreciation before you can build more.
2. Build Your Inner BFF: With our friends it's easy to build them up! But with ourselves we don't extend that level of care and compassion. Work on building up your inner-BFF. Cheerlead yourself. Let you know what rocks about you. As that positive voice gets louder, it'll start to drown out the negative or nit-picky one.
3. Re-Frame Why You Exercise: If you've grown up with a negative self-image, we often use exercise or fitness as a punishment. Like "Ugh I ate that burrito, so now I HAVE to go to the gym tomorrow". F*CK that! First off, burritos rock. Second, you're working out and eating healthy so you can have a long life full of future burritos. Allow training and nutrition to become the fuel to help you enjoy life. Not the place you go to beat yourself up.
4. Social Media Fasting: Scroll Holes. They're like black holes, but it just sucks your face into Instagram for waaay too long. Taking a day or two break from social media can do wonders for your mindset. You won't be constantly bombarded by perfect images of ripped people on beaches with captions like, "Just breathe". Whatever Jessica. You liked that bikini and wanted post it. Don't bring mindfulness into this.
5. Work on It: Loving yourself isn't an end goal. It's a journey (woof how many times have we read that imagery). You're going to have days where you feel like a king and days when you feel like a gross banana peel that's hanging on the edge of a dumpster. Allow yourself to have bad days. Don't beat yourself up for beating yourself up. Just keep on keepin' on.

I still am working towards where I want to be with my mindset. It's easy to expound that people should love their body but actually doing it is another thing entirely.

These are just some of the things I try to use. I'd love to know what practices, tips & tricks you use to help yourself down the road of loving your body!