Alright, let’s talk about one of the issues that’s plaguing our mind this season, extra weight. Over the past year and a half, we all have dealt with the consequences to being in a pandemic. COVID-19 has drastically changed the way we all do things. One of the many impacts to having restrictions on our interactions and activities is decreased exercise and increased eating. If you are not one of the millions of people that gained additional weight since last year, get out of here, this is not for you (lol).

Having our regular routine snatched from us, decreased our regular (ADL’s) activities of daily living. For millions of us we transitioned from working in office to working from home. This has some great benefits, less face it for some of us working from home has been the best thing since sliced bread. The ability to minimize interaction with less desired coworkers/colleagues has been great! The decrease in commute time is not only good for our ecosystem, yet it’s great in many ways for our quality of life. However, there is an adverse impact to not actually having to walk further to various locations throughout our day. The idea of being able to have access to your refrigerator and pantry at any given time, has caused us to be more liberal in what we are eating and how often we are eating.

These two things combined, (lack of activity, and increased access to food more frequently) has caused many of us to gain undesired weight. It happened so fast for some of us, we didn’t even see it. Yet, as we all try on our last year’s summer clothes, the more we see how “thangs” have changed. This stark realization for some can be mentally draining and can have adverse impacts on confidence and self-esteem. This is not the time to be unkind to your body and go on radical unhealthy diets. I can assure you that punishing our body is not going to breed internal or external healthy results. So, does that mean do nothing? Absolutely Not! This means that while you work to make modifications and adjustments to your new routine, you learn to embrace and love your current version, while you work to the desired version of your health.

Here’s some tips on Healthy Approaches to dealing with extra weight:

1. Still get dressed! Carrying extra weight does not mean you should walk around in a sheet or unflattering clothes. One of the keys to body transformation, is loving what you see, while your transformation is in progress.

2. Identify one area on your body that you see as beautiful and celebrate it every chance you get! If you can identify more that’s great, however, if you are struggling and you find that the only thing you can see beauty in is your pinky toe, rock the hell out of sandals that show your pinky toe, bedazzle it as you see fit!

3. Show up to the bar-b-que! Yes, it can be challenging to go around others that might notice your excess weight gain, however, isolation will lead to more of a decrease in self-esteem and self-confidence. Give them all of your voluptuous curves with no reservations, we all are in this together. You might not be the only one showing up a little “thicker”.

4. Use affirmations to give yourself positive self-talk at moments when you are feeling discouraged about your body. Affirmations can be in the language in which you speak, so if just saying your beautiful is not your standard dialogue, add a twist to that affirmation, example, “She’s a baddie from head to toe”.

5. Gift yourself with patience! Weight challenges can be difficult for most to deal with and creating unrealistic expectations will be your worst nightmare. So, this idea of forcing your body to change in drastic time, is not being kind or loving to your body. Unless, you are working with a medical provider, your goals should not be to lose 30lbs in two weeks. Talk with your medical provider on what’s an appropriate timeframe for weight loss for you.

As always if you need extra support in dealing with anxiety, depression, body image issues, etc. Get help from a mental health professional. upon a time…