You may have felt unaccepted as a child and been unable to change that, but as an adult self-acceptance is within your control. Have you checked your self-acceptance box lately?

When Jodie Cook, a 29-year old mother of two decided to lose weight, she knew she needed to change more than her appearance:

"I also had to address the way I felt about myself - fat or thin I need to like who I am."

Accept yourself: To be body confident, you need to decide to accept who you are now, whether or not you need to lose weight. From this acceptance, your body confidence will grow. Jodie explains how she developed self-acceptance.

"I began to keep an eye on my self-talk and gradually began to replace negative thoughts with positive ones." Jodie explains. "I stopped calling myself a 'fat pig' if I enjoyed a piece of cake occasionally, and began to compliment myself on the things I was achieving instead."

Follow Jodie's lead and stop being overly critical of yourself. Start to compliment yourself instead of engaging in negative self-talk. Value your body for its good points instead of dwelling on things you think are wrong with it.

Eating too much of the wrong types of food, drinking too much, smoking, not exercising and not taking care of your appearance are guaranteed ways to drop your body confidence.

Turn it around: To increase your body-confidence, you need to take good care of yourself every day.  Nurture your body and mind with healthy food, moderate exercise, and adequate sleep.

Doing things that say "I care about myself" can also be an incredible confidence booster. Try a new haircut, buy a nice item of clothing. Pamper yourself with bubble baths and body scrubs. Compliment yourself and learn to recognize your achievements with non-food rewards. Although these aren’t magic answers to your esteem problems, even the smallest of steps will lead to a more positive outlook.

Who says the size of your thighs is a measure of your worth?

You are more than just a body, but if you focus only on your body, it's all too easy to forget about the rest of life. But if you think outside your body and involve your mind and emotions in concerns other than how you look, you'll find that the overall confidence that builds in those areas will trickle down and boost your body confidence too.

Have outer-body experiences! To boost your body-confidence, take an interest not just in how you look, but in how you act, think and feel. For example:

• Find yardsticks other than how you look to evaluate yourself. Make a list of all the positive things about yourself. Do you help others? Can you be relied on? Are you a good friend? Are you a good parent? Co-worker? Spouse?
  
  
• If you can objectively say you could do a better job at what you do, work on doing it better.  Doing better makes you feel better. Feeling better about what you do and who you are will build your confidence in all areas, including how you feel about your body.
  
  
• Do things that you enjoy. If you love to travel, but you haven’t taken the time to do it, plan a trip. If you love jazz, go and listen to some. If you like flowers, grow a few!

If you can be confident in general, it's easier to be confident about your body. A confident person doesn't constantly seek the approval of others, has realistic expectations, is postive about who they are, and, most importantly, accepts themselves. Your challenge is to do the same!