Self love series: How to be more body confident in 3 steps

How do you feel about your appearance?

I think most of us would love to be more body confident! But what actually is body confidence?

Body confidence is different from Self-Esteem or Self Worth. Having a positive body image/body confidence, means we have the ability to separate how we feel about ourselves, and our appearance. People who realise that self-worth/self-esteem (how you feel about yourself) is not linked to appearance (how you look), generally have a more positive body image and feel good about how they look.

If you have a negative body image or low body confidence, you may feel that how you look doesn’t measure up to what society/the media/your friends expect.

But how do we start to feel more confident about ourselves?

1. Find a workout you love!

I hear time and time again (and there is proof) that exercise is a great mood-booster. Those endorphins (happy hormones) can work wonders! But it can be sooo hard to stay motivated. You need to find your thing. This is the thing that keeps you wanting to do more because you enjoy it, and it just happens to be good exercise.

Don’t stay stuck on the treadmill (unless that’s what you love!) – try something new, like a dance class or team sport. Once you get into a routine and get good at it, it’ll no doubt increase your confidence in your abilities, and your appearance. And you might meet new people at the same time.

2. Work on your mindset and your wardrobe!

You have the power to feel good about yourself and your body. It just needs a good, strong mindset and some confidence boosters.

Just think about it for a second. The curvy plus-size models look absolutely gorgeous, right? And they look super confident about it! Deep down some of them probably have the same insecurities. But some of their confidence is probably due to dressing well for their shape.

• Think about the clothes you wear… Do they flatter you?
• Are you wearing the right styles for your body shape?
• What colours suit you?

If you regularly have bad wardrobe days and fell like you’re stuck in a rut of not looking good in anything you own, it would be well worth booking a colour and style session with my lovely wardrobe stylist, Jo from Sparkling Ginger.

3. Be kind to yourself and respect your body

• Eat well and know what you’re putting into your body.
• Take time for yourself so that you’re not stressed.
• Get enough sleep!

Know what foods work for you to make you feel your best. I know people who have tried cutting certain foods out and suddenly feel so much more energised. For instance, I know if I eat chocolate I get more spots, so I try to avoid it! Because I feel more confident when I have clear skin. See if you can eat 7 types of fruit and veg per day 🙂

It’s also good to know when and where you can get professional help if you need it.

If you feel like you really need to lose weight (which is a personal thing – only YOU know), I recommend you try a group like Slimming World. I joined last summer because it got to the point where I couldn’t fit into my clothes anymore. I’ve tried dieting in the past, which always worked in the short term, but I always ended up putting the weight back on again. But it wasn’t until I joined my local Slimming World group that I realised how beneficial the group support can be. After I’d hit my first stone milestone I could really notice, and other people did too, so it gave me that extra confidence boost. I appreciate there are different things that work for different people, and there isn’t one way to do things, but that worked for me 🙂

Please get in touch to tell me your thoughts – I’d love to hear from you! Just send me an email to info@ginnymarsh.co.uk or click the link below.

Confidence is sexy!

You can do this!

Ginny x

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