Body image goals: focus on the feeling

After years of failed pre-holiday diets, Ali Roff shares her mind-hack to help keep you motivated and reach your healthy-body goals, without the meaningless numbers

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Body image goals: focus on the feeling

3 minute read

Burn 800 calories; lose five pounds; drop a dress size. These are the goals I have set myself in the past. But what do these numbers mean? What does five pounds look like? What does 800 calories feel like? How do we know when weโ€™ve reached our goal; apart from checking the scales โ€“ which have the power to bring both happiness and pain in the same day?

During my journey to obtain a healthier, freer, more confident mindset and body, I realised that itโ€™s not about a number, but a feeling. Not just in my own skin, or my clothes, but in my head, gut and heart. I looked back at almost every holiday I had ever had โ€“ self-consciously covering up on the beach, my inner gremlin picking at my imperfections.

This year, I decided that, instead of chasing a number, I would make it my goal to identify the feeling I wanted instead. That emotion would be my goal, and the focus that kept me on track. I imagined how it would feel when I got there. What would it look like? Healthy. How would it feel physically? Comfortable. How would it sound? Like laughter. I wanted to feel content; serene and free of my inner gremlin. Whether itโ€™s a project, charity or friendship, I know that, when Iโ€™m emotionally attached to something, Iโ€™m more invested in it. Why should it be any different when Iโ€™m working towards my health, fitness and body-image goals?

Breakthrough moment

A random number doesnโ€™t mean much, but the feeling of confidence, walking to the pool, carefree in my swimsuit, was incredibly motivating. Now, my goals run deeper than weighing a certain amount or being a particular dress size. There was a moment on holiday this year when I found myself in the kitchen of our villa, putting together a beautiful Greek salad, in my bikini. I hadnโ€™t even noticed what I was wearing. I hadnโ€™t covered up. For the first time, I hadnโ€™t brought my gremlin on holiday, and it was all because I had focused on the feeling, instead of the figures.

Ali’s debut book The Wellfulness Project will be published December 26th 2019 by Aster. Follow Ali at @AliRoff and visit her website aliroff.com to find out more about her and her wellness retreats.

Image: Laura Doherty