In difficult times, struggles with body image can intensify quickly. Having practical strategies to navigate a bad body image day helps you interrupt negative thoughts, reclaim control, and treat your body with greater compassion.
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Key Takeaways
How to stop a bad body image day in its tracks:
- Notice your critical self-talk — the “gremlin” voice — and question why you accept the stories diet culture feeds you.
- Understand body positivity as a social justice issue and advocate for dignity and respect for all bodies.
- Make space to grieve what society celebrates; allow yourself to experience difficult emotions fully.
- Give yourself permission to listen to your body and make choices that feel right for you right now.
Body Image With Bri Campos
Brianna Campos — known as Body Image with Bri on Instagram — is a mental health counselor, therapist, and body image coach. She helps people navigate their body image journeys and heal their relationship with their bodies through compassionate, practical work.
Getting Over Your Gremlin Thoughts
Bri refers to harsh internal messages as the “gremlin voice.” These critical thoughts are often messy and uncomfortable, so diet culture fills the gaps with stories that keep us stuck. The first step to interrupting those gremlins is to name them. Acknowledge the thought, ask whether it aligns with your values, and decide if you want to keep believing it.
Creating this awareness — auditing thoughts and focusing on the ones that reflect your core values — allows you to respond more intentionally. You don’t need perfection; you need consistency in catching the gremlins early so they don’t hijack your whole day.
Healing Your Body Image Relationships
Body image includes more than appearance: it covers how you think others view you, how social systems treat different bodies, and your relationship with diet culture. Healing begins when you question the stories you tell yourself and allow grief and acceptance to coexist.
Dismantling harmful beliefs about your body is rarely easy, but it’s essential for moving through bad body image days with greater grace. Give yourself time and patience as you practice new ways of relating to your body.
How will you give yourself permission to be where you are this season? Share which of Bri’s tools you’ll try and how you plan to integrate them into your life.
In This Episode
- How to stop a bad body image day by acknowledging your “gremlin” thoughts (9:56)
- Why body positivity is a social justice movement (11:46)
- The harms of diet culture and weight cycling (24:12)
- The importance of making space to feel grief (28:54)
- Tips for handling the holiday season and pandemic-related stress on body image (34:40)
Quotes
“People look to me not because I am perfect, but because I am vulnerable and I am honest.” (9:51)
“Body image is not just how you look. It’s also how you believe others view you, how those beliefs shape how you show up, and how accessible life is in your body.” (12:31)
“I never believed I could love my body until it looked the way I wanted it to. Five years later, I love my body — not always how it looks or moves, but as the vessel that connects me to relationship, connection, and purpose.” (26:13)
“Grief is like a tidal wave. If you resist it, it pulls you under. If you ride it out, it eventually returns you to shore.” (31:50)
“I am going to honor my body, and this is how I choose to love myself this holiday season.” (37:05)
Links
Body Grievers Group Coaching
Body Image Supervision Cohort
Follow Body Image With Bri on Instagram
Unpacking the Knapsack of Privilege (recommended reading)
Follow Steph on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Pinterest
If you enjoyed the episode, please consider leaving a rating and review on iTunes — it helps others discover the show.
Related Episodes
LTYB 302: Finding Joy & Acceptance in Fitness for Every Body with Kanoa Greene
LTYB 183: Dealing with Negative Body Image with Beauty Redefined
Transcript: How To Stop a Bad Body Image Day in Its Tracks w/ Brianna Campos
Steph Gaudreau
How can you stop a bad body image day in its tracks? We’ll explore this and more with Bri Campos on Listen To Your Body.
Welcome to Listen To Your Body, where we explore how body, mind, and spirit connect and how to trust your body’s signals. I’m Steph Gaudreau, a certified intuitive eating counselor, nutritional therapy practitioner, and strength coach. Expect expert interviews and practical guidance to help you reconnect with food, movement, and your body.
Brianna Campos
Hi, thanks so much for having me.
Steph Gaudreau
Bri’s work is vital — she fills gaps in resources for people struggling with body image and guides them toward healing.
Women’s Body Image
Steph Gaudreau
This year has amplified body image struggles for many. Have you seen that in your community?
Brianna Campos
Yes. Unlike a typical year where people compare themselves to others, many now compare to earlier versions of themselves. Emotional strain, reduced motivation, and limited outlets have made self-care harder, intensifying body image distress.
Steph Gaudreau
Which makes your work all the more necessary.
Brianna Campos
Absolutely — even for those of us whose work centers on body image, challenges persist.
Shine a Light on Your Gremlins
Steph Gaudreau
How do you work through those moments when your inner critic appears?
Brianna Campos
I use the term “gremlin voice” to separate critical thoughts from my true self. The gremlin changes its message over time, so the key is recognizing the thought, asking whether it aligns with your values, and choosing responses that reflect authenticity and compassion rather than perfection.
Steph Gaudreau
Catching gremlins early prevents them from taking over the day.
Body Positivity is a Social Justice Issue
Steph Gaudreau
You emphasize that body positivity is a social justice issue. Can you explain?
Brianna Campos
Body image is shaped by social structures and privilege. Body positivity must include all bodies. You can’t claim inclusion while shaming others. Reflect on whether your words and actions genuinely support all bodies; if they don’t, that’s where the work begins. Body autonomy is essential, but co-opting inclusivity while promoting exclusion undermines the movement.
Body Image in Sports
Steph Gaudreau
It’s complex and requires listening to lived experience and accepting discomfort as part of growth.
Brianna Campos
Many avoid these conversations because they’re hard or fear saying the wrong thing. Learning about privilege and how societal systems advantage some bodies over others is necessary for meaningful change.
Stop Weight Cycling
Steph Gaudreau
Diet culture’s quick-fix promises often perpetuate weight cycling and undermine long-term well-being.
Brianna Campos
Short-term praise can outweigh awareness of harm. True body autonomy and acceptance take nuance and time; they can’t be sold as instant fixes.
Identify Your Privileges
Steph Gaudreau
Listening to and validating others’ lived experiences is a vital part of progress.
Brianna Campos
If you’re unsure about privilege, resources like “Unpacking the Knapsack of Privilege” can help. Recognizing the realities of fat oppression and thin privilege clarifies why some lives are harder because of their bodies.
Women Athlete Body Image
Steph Gaudreau
There’s an expectation that body acceptance will be quick and easy, yet it’s often slow and nuanced.
Brianna Campos
Toxic positivity can block real progress. Allowing grief and sitting with uncomfortable emotions — what I call body grief — is often necessary before acceptance becomes possible.
Community Can Help You Through Difficult Emotions
Steph Gaudreau
People fear grief because it feels permanent or overwhelming.
Brianna Campos
Grief behaves like a tidal wave: resist it and it persists; ride it and it passes. Community can act as a lifeline — people who hold space for you make grief more manageable and familiar over time.
Give Yourself Permission
Steph Gaudreau
With holidays and added stress, what practical steps can listeners take?
Brianna Campos
Try writing permission slips instead of resolutions. Give yourself explicit permission for how you want to show up: to rest, to move differently, to enjoy food, or to grieve. Sign your own permission slips — you don’t need someone else to co-sign your choices. Set boundaries and choose how you’ll honor your body this season.
Where to Connect with Bri
Steph Gaudreau
Bri offers a Body Grievers Group — a six-week community to sit with grief, be validated, and break shame with empathy — plus resources for professionals through a Body Image Supervision Cohort.
Brianna Campos
These offerings were created from lived need and practical experience. The goal is less instant “fix” and more sustainable support: community, validation, and tools to keep working on body image over time.
Steph Gaudreau
Thank you, Bri. For show notes, transcripts, and resources mentioned in this episode, visit StephGaudreau.com. If you’re ready to move beyond dieting and reconnect with your body, consider joining the Tune In Membership at StephGaudreau.com/Insider.
We’ll be back next week with another thoughtful episode. Until then, be well.