It’s OK to Love Your Body AND Want to Lose Weight 

I think it’s time we addressed the elephant in the room.

Being a woman can be really confusing in the 21st century.

I think we can all agree that this is nothing new, but I feel like we are on the cusp of some really amazing shifts in the way that we as a society encourage women to think about their bodies, and I am HERE FOR IT.

More and more ads for women’s clothing are showing women of all different colors and shapes.

I have noticed that more and more clothing companies are finally offering inclusive sizing for all of our different sizes and shapes too.

You can get pants in short, medium, long, curvy…some clothing companies, even biking/cycling ones, are offering XXS-XXXL sizes. As a short woman who has never been petite in stature I find this incredibly refreshing.

You may have also noticed that social media influencers are celebrating their bodies as they are and shouting from the rooftops that dieting is absolute crap and does so much harm, and I could NOT be more in agreement.

I have additionally noticed, however, that a lot of times these messages are very either/or. Women are either beating themselves up, OR they are celebrating themselves. They are either saying “oh my gosh I have to lose weight, I am so gross” OR they are saying “Dieting sucks! Be awesome as you are!”

Here’s the thing. At the end of the day, what you are thinking and feeling about yourself and your body is YOUR business. Share it if you want to! Don’t share it if you don’t. Either way, I am here to tell you that it’s OK to love your body as it is right now AND still want to change it. 

In fact? This is EXACTLY the place that you SHOULD be attempting to make changes from if you want to lose weight biking.

Curious? Read on to see how I unpack some of the thoughts that the women I work with in Lose Weight Biking commonly have about their bodies and weight loss. I will talk about what works and what…well..just doesn’t.   

Real Lasting Change Needs to Come From a Place of Love and Appreciation for Everything Our Bodies Can DO

Now, you may have heard me say this before, but I want to just take a minute to dive in and explain this.

If you are anything like me, you have found yourself caught in this cycle:   

1. Look in the mirror and hate what you see and say “I need to DO something”
2. Start a diet. Restrict all the things. Exercise a bunch. Be GOOD at it for a week, two weeks, even a month or two! 
3. Lose some weight! Feel awesome and so proud! 
4. Get busy. Life gets in the way. You can’t keep on top of restricting all of the things or riding your bike a bunch. You get HUNGRY. You get your period. You or someone you love gets sick. You EAT. 
5. You gain the weight back (and then some), feel like crap. Feel like you worked so hard and screwed up. Again. Give up for a while. 
6. Rinse and repeat. Over, and over, and over again. 

I mean, I am exhausted just recapping this. And I did it COUNTLESS times so when I was in it? For decades? I felt like absolute crap. Sound familiar?

Notice that there is only ONE STEP in that whole process where you feel awesome. The rest is just a bunch of beating yourself up and feeling like garbage. 

No one ever loses weight long term from that place of restriction and hopelessness because it just feels bad.

When you love your body, appreciate it, and focus on what it can do BEFORE you try to make changes you are so much nicer to yourself in the process AND more likely to get results. 

You forgive yourself quickly when you make mistakes. You move the eff on, and you DON’T GIVE UP because you know that you are worth it.

You know that you are going to get there, and that it’s just a matter of time.

See how much better that feels? How much more motivating it is than “Here I go. Screwing up again. I am never going to lose weight and keep it off.” 

Watch Out for the Little Pesky Thoughts That You Think Aren’t THAT Bad (Spoiler…They ARE)       

Speaking of thoughts like “I am never going to lose my weight and keep it off,” let’s talk about the sneakier thoughts that can get in the way.

It’s quite possible that you have gotten really good at recognizing those big crappy thoughts, but the smaller ones are still sneaking in. 

You know the thoughts like “Oh I could never wear anything like THAT” or “I can’t eat carbs because I can’t stop.” 

When you think this way about yourself and your body you are very subtly sabotaging your weight loss efforts.

When you say that you can’t eat carbs because you can’t stop, you are actually giving the food control, and taking it away from yourself. This is not helpful.

Likewise, convincing yourself that you are somehow unworthy of a particular outfit or of being in bike shorts without a skirt because of how you look right now can make you feel bad. This mindset suggests you will somehow be better or more worthy if you lose weight.

The reality is that a different physical version of you is just that. Something different. It is no better or worse than where you are at right now.

Now, I can just hear you arguing with me. “But Stacy…I am not HEALTHY being this weight.”

If that is something that you find yourself thinking, I want you to ask yourself if that is really what you mean by that thought, or does it actually mean that you think you can’t be healthy unless you lose weight.

I am telling you honestly, and truly, that you CAN be both healthy and weigh more. There are plenty of healthy people who according to some BS BMI chart are considered overweight.

I know that it can feel tedious at times to look so closely at what you are thinking, but it is so helpful and necessary.

When you bring awareness to these thoughts that are not bringing you closer to your goals and think of ways to change them you are taking a really important step to actually achieving your goals. 

There is Nothing Wrong With Wanting Your Body to Be Different. This Is Normal, Natural, and Healthy IF You Approach It From a Positive Place 

The thing is that it is perfectly OK to want to make changes to your body. To want to be fit, and to want to be stronger.

I know that sometimes when I see messages of body positivity I get confused because I am wondering if it’s actually OK to want to lose weight. Then I realize, “of course it’s OK to want to lose weight!”

It’s YOUR body. You get to make all the decisions and choices about what you eat, how much you ride, and what kind of results you want to work towards.

What is very much not OK is to be a jerk to yourself before you have gotten your body to where you want it to be.

It would be one thing if it worked (though I would certainly still encourage you to not!). 

The problem is that it doesn’t. When you attempt to lose weight from a place of thinking that you aren’t good enough and that there is something wrong with you and your body for losing and gaining weight over and over again you feel defeated before you even start.

This is pretty much an impossible place to motivate from. Trust me, you are way more likely to give up and dive face first into a pint of Ben and Jerrys if you are being an absolute jerk to yourself than you are to lose weight and keep it off.

Instead, try having your back. Try being your own best cheerleader. Remind yourself that everyone messes up and does something that doesn’t bring them closer to their goals.

Remember, you are a human. And, at their absolute BEST humans only make the “right” choices maybe 80% of the time. You are absolutely not alone 

A Final Note

I can’t begin to tell you how straight up compelled I was to write this article today.

You see, each and every single one of us needs to hear this message.

It’s OK to love your body AND want to change it.

It’s just as OK to love your body and NOT want to change it.

The idea is that it is YOUR choice. You get to make all of the decisions about what you want for your body, and that is truly a beautiful thing.

The only time that I will tell you that you are making the wrong choice is if the choice makes YOU feel bad.

Feeling bad sucks. It’s not a motivator. It just makes us act from a place of fear or of not being good enough. We are so much more likely to give up when we feel this way, and we are not giving up.

You are going to lose your weight for the last time biking. You are going to keep reading all of this stuff that makes you feel good, and it is going to bring you to a place where you are ready to take actions that bring you closer to your goals.

It’s OK if you don’t believe you can do it right now.

I am here telling you that you can, and I will hold that belief right here for you until you are ready to realize it.

You’ve got this my friend, and I am right here for you…every step of the way.

Ride on!
xoxo
Stacy