Polly, a 51-year-old female, visits your fitness facility. She is dissatisfied with her body and is responding to a series of ads your facility uses to attract people interested in weight loss. Can we think of ways she can become more accepting of her body?


Answer: Instead of jumping to intense workout regimens or strict diets, we can coax her to focus more on what her body can accomplish physically versus just how it looks. We wish to encourage her to accept her body and cherish her progress in her athletic endeavors, e.g. if she is consistently performing resistance exercises, remind her that her body can now lift much more weight than when she first started. She can focus more on that, instead of purely a number on a scale. Moreover, we can also dig into where her body insecurities came from, and take steps so that she can work through this trauma. Suggestions include renaming a specific disliked body part, focusing on the great parts of her own body, and appreciating the inherent strength and functionality of her body.