3 Questions to Ask Yourself on a Bad Body Image Day

Two of the most frustrating things about having a bad body image day are:

1. Not knowing why

2. Not knowing what to do about it

As an Ivy League-trained therapist who spent years specializing in eating disorders, I teach women how to understand, address, and heal chronic body image issues.

But I have to be honest: Part of healing your body image means there will just be some days where you don’t feel good about your body and you won’t know why.

And that is okay.

However, if you are struggling with chronic body image issues, whether you’ve had an eating disorder or not, there are a lot of things that you can do to better understand why your body image is going haywire and what to do about it.

So today, I’m going to share with you 3 easy questions that you can ask yourself when you’re having a bad body image day so you can start to create your own process for working through it.

Ready? Let’s get started.

Question #1: What kind of stressors/emotional situations are going on in your life right now?

Let’s start off with a brief recap of my definition of body image:

Body image refers to the thoughts, feelings, sensations, & perceptions related to your body, which can all affect how you feel about yourself. It encompasses how you feel in your body & what you think about your body, which in turn affect how you treat your body.

Strong negative emotions and stressful situations have a negative effect on body image.

If you are feeling stressed, depressed, anxious, overwhelmed, or afraid, you can pretty much count on these emotions affecting your body image.

It might be in the form of body image distortion or dysmorphia where you don’t actually see your body accurately or it might be through low self or body esteem and not feeling good about the way you look.

Many women tend to run into trouble when they attribute the source of their body image distress to a) who they are as a person and or b) their body itself.

The more you believe this, the more you’re also at risk for depression, anxiety, and eating disorder behaviors.

Instead, I want to ask yourself, “What’s going on in my life right now? Am I stressed? Am I anxious? Did I get some bad news? Has something difficult happened recently?”

Use this information to help you determine what you’re feeling and the factors that might have led to that.

This helps you create space between a bad body image day and your worth as a person.

It also helps you understand the real issues underlying your body image that need to be addressed.

When you know how to identify your emotions and use them as guidance, you’ll have a personalized roadmap of how to move forward. (And if you need some help with this, I walk you through my exact method here.)

Question #2: How are you feeling about yourself right now?

In this question, we are exploring your levels of confidence, self-esteem, and self-efficacy.

How are you feeling about yourself right now in your job, school, relationships, and as a woman in general?

Are you feeling like you can handle challenges that come your way? Are you crushing it at work? Do you feel socially connected and accepted?

Your answers to this could have an effect on your body image, because often times the better we feel about ourselves and our ability to handle things in life, the better our body image will be.

On the flip side, if you’re caught up in crippling perfectionism, ruminating on all of your mistakes, or you’re isolated from friends and family and don’t feel good about yourself, you could start to see that play into your body image in a negative way.

Question #3: How much quality sleep are you getting?

While this might seem like a random question, let me explain why it’s not.

Sleep quantity and quality are incredibly important factors when it comes to mental health (see here and here if you want to read more).

Lack of quality sleep can be a significant vulnerability factor when it comes to your emotional state, which is then going to impact your body image.

Don’t believe me?

Think about how you feel after a night of tossing and turning or little to no sleep. Probably not great, right?

You’re likely going to be tired, irritable, reaching for sugar or caffeine, and overall not feeling your best.

Being in this kind of state makes it difficult to feel your best physically and regulate yourself emotionally.

If you are regularly sleep deprived, you’re going to have a chronic vulnerability factor when it comes to both your overall mental health and subsequently your body image.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to body image, many women tend to look for quick fixes in the form of some magical diet or exercise routine, but that’s not the way it works.

Healing your body image is about going deeper than that.

It’s not about making one big change and getting instant results, it’s about doing a lot of little things that build up to have a greater effect over time.