Impacts of Body Dissatisfaction On Performance

As an athlete, you know you need to fuel properly to train, recover, and stay healthy.
And to help, there are apps, experts and articles to keep you accountable to eating enough.

But if you struggle with your relationship with your body, that dissatisfaction can silently interfere with your ability to eat enough, fuel your workouts appropriately and support your body with the nutrition it deserves.

In simple terms:
👉 When you respect your body, you give it what it needs.
👉 When you dislike your body, you withhold fuel.

A healthy body relationship removes emotional roadblocks so that fueling can be based on science, health, and performance. 

Body Acceptance

Photo credit: Brittany Bevis

What do you think about your body when.... Standing on the podium in first place, yet you feel "too fat." Achieving a personal best time, yet your legs/butt feels "too big." Doubting your abilities because your stomach feels "too heavy." Blaming your subpar performance on your weight.  Lacking self confidence because you don't look like other athletes. In each of these scenarios is an athlete who believes one of two things: That looking differently will improve athletic success or a current look is the reason for lack of athletic success. Despite putting in the training and being physically prepared for an event, actual acceptance of one-self can be a major athletic limiter. Inside, you have internalized feelings of being inadequate because of a look, a comparison or an assumption. Poor body image can wreak havoc on performance, physical health and mental well-being. There are great consequences to trying to conform to rigid societal ideals. Underfueling, skipping meals, restricting carbohydrates, eliminating certain foods groups and ignoring body hunger cues are some of the many unhealthy dieting and disordered eating strategies that athletes turn to when trying to achieve a specific body type ideal. Sadly, many of the above strategies are unhealthy (for the body and mind), yet encouraged by coaches, nutrition experts and the media as a means to an end to gain the competitive edge. Through the rise of social media and prejudgment statements from coaches/nutrition experts, the pressure to change how you look is almost inevitable. But that doesn't make it acceptable. Comparing your body to the body of another athlete can make you feel inadequate, unprepared and doubtful of your abilities. You may even assume that other athletes are more serious/successful than you because of their strict diets, body type and large social media following. Pressure around body type can be detrimental to health (physical and mental), confidence and most of all, love of sport. It's not uncommon for an athlete to slip down the road of dieting, disordered eating and body image obsession only to reduce longevity (and potential) in the sport that was once fun, enjoyable and health promoting. The way your body looks and the way your body moves/performance are not necessarily correlated. How you think your body should look to perform well may not match what your body really needs to look like to perform well. To escape the immense pressure to attain body image perfection, body positivity is critical. What you think about your body matters. Without it, confidence and self-esteem are destroyed. How can you believe in your abilities if you don't appreciate your body? To improve body image positivity, here are a few tips:  Every body is different. A look doesn't predict athletic success (or failure).  Always thank your body and appreciate what it can do.  Become more accepting of yourself. When you accept who and where you are, that's when change can occur. Mentally beating yourself up gets you nowhere.  Take control over your inner dialogue. Body image is closely linked to self-esteem.  Avoid a perfectionist mindset. Good enough is great.  Don't make comparisons or assumptions.  Remind yourself that in the world of social media, many people are presenting carefully selected images and posts of their lives, designed to look better than reality.  Break the habit of making excuses for yourself, being all or nothing or being highly critical of yourself.  Surround yourself with body positive advocates. Steer clear of people who make you feel bad about how you look.  Select your role models and influencers carefully.  A negative body image can be the start of an eating disorder, depression and anxiety. If you think you are suffering from a mental illness, don't be afraid to seek professional help. Brave athletes speak up and get help.  Learn to overpower negative thoughts with positive ones. Build your confidence with body positive affirmations and mantras. For example, workout because you love your body, not because you hate it. Wear clothing that makes you feel good about your body. Work with your body, not against it.  Be ok with change. Seeing your body change does not remove your great qualities and skills. Respect yourself. You must take care of your human self before your athlete self. Let your body know how much you care and appreciate it.

Body Positive Resolutions

Becoming more body positive is a necessary step in developing better physical, mental and emotional health. A positive body image ensures proper nutrition and fueling to support the intentional training stress that you place on your body. To move closer to your athletic goals and dreams, you must recognize that all bodies are normal bodies.

In 2022, I challenge you to unlearn the messages from decades of social conditioning that only certain bodies are worth acceptance, love, happiness, success and praise. The media has created a narrow, unrealistic and inaccurate definition of healthy, athletic and beautiful. You deserve to embrace your body no matter your size, shape or appearance. We live in a world that constantly tries to tell us that our body is wrong and needs to be fixed, but just think how inspiring, empowering and encouraging our society would be if we celebrated body diversity!

You may not love your body today but you can accept it and appreciate all that it does for you.

Body Acceptance - love yourself as you age

Last week on my blog I posted my last race recap for 2021 - my experience at the Xterra 21K Trail Running World Championship in Maui. As I begin to reflect on a very successful year of racing, I can't believe that I will no longer be racing in the 35-39 age group. Next year I will enter a new decade of my life.

(Fun fact: I qualified for the Ironman World Championship by winning the 18-24 age group at IMFL '06, which was my very first Ironman).

Accepting that your body will change with age, there's no reason to let your body image hold you back. Stop holding on to what was, used to be or should have been and start living a life of what is, what can and will be.

Appearance is not the basis of self-worth. Comparison to an idealized image is harmful for your mental and physical health.

As you gain wisdom and experience, you deserve to feel good about your body and about your abilities.

You are worthy, not worthless.

2020 Resolution: Body Respect

The year 2020 is here!

We all know that saying that is widely heard on January 1st..... "New Year, New You."

New Year resolutions come in many forms. As a promise that you make for yourself - in hope of new beginnings - you may be wanting to break a bad habit or create something more positive. For most, resolutions are goals that you want to accomplish over a course of several months or over the year.

If you suddenly feel the need to make a change, there's nothing wrong with wanting to be more active, eat a more nourishing diet or live a healthier lifestyle.

However, because most New Year resolutions involve diet and exercise in an effort to change body composition/weight, this resolution to look, feel or perform differently may become detrimental to your physical and mental health. It's not uncommon for resolutioners to restrict food/nutrients and mistreat their bodies in an attempt to reach weight loss goals. If your New Year, New You goal is to improve your health, you have lost all health benefits of your resolution by abiding to such strict, rigid and extreme dietary and exercise regimes.

Do you feel the need to conform to societal norms or to please others?

Is your self-confidence wreaked from all the things you feel you didn't achieve in the previous year?

Do you feel judged by your appearance?

Do you regularly compare yourself to others?

When was the last time you thought about who you are as a person?

Do you know yourself?

In 2020, I encourage you to make this year about being more kind to yourself. If you want to change something about yourself, learning how to respect yourself is an instrumental part of the process.
Search inwards to start understanding your "self."

Self respect is an important component of achieving a health-related goal. The more you respect yourself, the more you are able to take care of yourself. If you find it extremely difficult to treat yourself respect yourself, how do you expect to achieve something that is important to you?



On the topic of self respect is body respect. It doesn't matter how much weight you lose or what diet regime you adhere to, you have to respect your body before you make a change.

If you struggle with body dissatisfaction or body comparison or constantly find yourself gravitating toward the latest dietary fad in hopes of finding a diet that will actually work for you, let 2020 be the year where you focus on respecting your body.

When it comes to dietary or exercise resolutions, most stem from a place of frustration, dissatisfaction and disappointment. You probably don't like/love something about your body and you feel like making a change will help you love your body. But how can you properly take care of something that you don't respect?

To show your body respect, here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Update your wardrobe - Dress the body that you have right now. You deserve to buy clothes that fit you. If something doesn't fit right, don't wait until you are a certain size to buy new clothes. Show your body respect by buying clothes that you like and clothes that you feel comfortable wearing. Express your personal style - wearing clothes that make you feel great about your body. 
2. Clean-up your social media feed - Even a brief exposure to body-image posts can negatively impact your mood and your own thoughts about your body. Follow people who have a healthy and positive outlook on body image and spread good messages about health, food and exercise. If someone makes you feel bad about yourself, unfollow. If anything, by diversifying the images you see on social media, you will constantly remind yourself that this world is better with a variety of body sizes, shapes, ages, ethnicities and genders. 
3. Thank your body - When you eat, exercise or sleep, you are doing something good for your body. Don't punish your body through your diet or exercise regime. Be mindful of negative self-talk, especially when you are feeling anxious, stressed or frustrated. During these times, you may take out your emotions on your body. Don't forget to thank your body for all that it allows you to do. Show compassion and kindness for yourself. 
4. Don't compare - Every body is different. What you see (body image) doesn't tell you what's going on inside of a person or in their private life (work, relationship, family, health, etc.). More so, what makes someone special has little to do with their looks or body. If you find yourself comparing yourself to others, give yourself a pep talk by describing a few of your amazing qualities that make you unique and special. 
5. Live your best life - You don't have to look differently to be happy. There's nothing wrong with wanting to adopt healthier habits but don't value yourself by a number on a scale (or your look). Don't let your weight, shape or image stop you from doing activities that you enjoy. Don't let assumptions keep you from trying something new. Your appearance does not determine your self-worth. Make a difference in this world and make this world better because you are in it. 

Thoughts on the Dumplin Netflix Movie

I'm a sucker for a feel-good movie with a happy ending - especially one that promotes positive body image and learning to love yourself for who you are. I recently heard about Dumplin as a movie and decided to give it a watch.

As for the movie itself, there are a lot of great messages spread throughout the movie. Here's a general review on the movie: 

"To be sure, the strength of Dumplin' is very much in its true-to-life depiction of a plus-size teenage girl and how her self-image is both reflected in the way she views the world and her presumptions of how others see her. Willowdean is at the center of a complicated web crafted by society's expectations for how young women should look - expectations constantly upheld by her mother Rosie, who spends much of her own life focused on staying thin - and the empowerment and self-love her Aunt Lucy tried to instill in her from a young age. Willowdean struggles to not be defined by her weight in a world where she feels constantly defined by her weight, and the insecurities that arise from that struggle inform much of her story and the actions she takes. As a result, Dumplin' is one of the best coming-of-age films (if not the best) about a plus-size girl... though, frankly, very few such stories actually exist in Hollywood."

The movie has a very strong message of self-acceptance. I would encourage parents to watch this move with your child/teenager, as instilling self-acceptance at a young age is extremely important.

After watching this movie, I wanted to share my thoughts relating to the message behind the movie. The media puts a lot of focus on thin/lean/skinny - leading society to believe that this "ideal" image is worth striving for because if you reach it, you'll be happy and successful. This movie is challenging and removing the stigma around the "perfect" body image - sending the message that you can be successful and happy at any size. Seeing that this ideal image is an unrealistic and unhealthy ideal, often causing feelings of shame, guilt and low self-confidence, I appreciate that there is a movie encouraging body acceptance.

As a Sport Dietitian, I never tell my athletes that they need to lose weight. When an athlete wants to work with me on nutrition, I never put the attention on weight or use weight as a barometer of progress/success. Instead, I strive to teach athletes about behavior modifications and and principles of proper fueling. I help athletes overcome psychological and lifestyle barriers that may be keeping the athlete from reaching personal health, body composition and performance goals. I focus on long-lasting changes, not quick fixes. Ultimately, I want athletes to focus on their health and physical and mental well-being and to have a desire to live a healthier lifestyle, instead of trying to achieve a "look."

In reference to the Dumplin movie, here are a few tips to help you with self-acceptance if you are struggling with your body image:

1. Have compassion for everyone. When you treat other people with respect, you'll have more respect for yourself. 
2. Be kind to yourself. Often, the voice in your head loves to beat yourself up. Instead, be more compassionate to yourself. 
3. Take the focus off your weight. Celebrate your strengths and abilities, regardless of how you look. You are worthy, no matter what. 
4. Accept and like yourself the way you look right now. Don't try to change your body to fit the way you think you should look. You are more than a weight/image. 
5. Respect yourself emotionally and physically. Focus on your whole self, not just your body. 
6. Surround yourself with people who recognize your qualities and like you just the way you are. 
7. Feeling overwhelmed, stressed, depressed or anxious in life? Don't take your feelings out on your body.