These are a few question or "topics" geared mostly for women keeping weight loss, weight gain, fitness, body image, or similar journals. I've made them up, appropriated them from other topic dujour lists or just pulled them from the air. You can e-mail any other suggestions for this list.

Some things to keep in mind about cultivating positive body image:

• Get hip to the psychological truths about appearances.
• Confront and address your vulnerabilities.
• Develop coping skills/outlets for dealing with your emotions in ways that are beneficial and not harmful to you.
• Learn to relax, learn how to not sweat the small stuff
• Replace negative thoughts about yourself with positive ones
• Pinpoint the situations that provoke body-image anxiety and come up with direct, healthy ways to deal with them.
• Tackle underlying reasons for your image-related unhappiness
• Cultivate a positive body image over time, ALL the time.
• Don't be afraid to seek professional help if you need more assistance. There is nothing to be ashamed of!

Enjoy!

~Astrophe

1) Have you ever felt ashamed of your body? When was the first time? Why did you feel this way? Do you continue to feel this way?

2) Is there anything about your body that you love? Why? Have you always felt this way? Elaborate.

3) If you could change anything about your body, what would it be? Would you not change a thing?

4) Do you use/abuse your body in order to not have to deal with other things? In what ways? Do you have other coping mechanisms? What are they?

5) Have you ever said "I feel fat" when really you meant something else like "I hate my job?"

6) Have you ever considered you might have an eating disorder? What makes you think you do/do not?

7) Do you have bulimia? Does anyone you know have bulimia? Describe it.

8) Do you have anorexia? Does anyone you know have anorexia? Describe it.

9) Are you a compulsive overeater? Do you binge/purge? Is food an emotional crutch for you? Elaborate.

10) What do you think of fad diets? How do you define a fad diet? Have you ever considered doing a fad diet?

11) How do you feel about food? Is it an enemy? Is it only fuel? Do you control it or does it control you?

12) Do you ever eat in secret? Do you lie and say you are not hungry because you are afraid to let others see you eat? Do you eat whatever you want when you want to?

13) What do you think of fat acceptance? Self acceptance? Body acceptance? Do you think you accept yourself how you are?

14) What do you think of fashion models, magazine ads, TV and movies? Do these things influence how you feel about your body?

15) Who is the most beautiful relative or friend you've got? Is there more than one? What makes them beautiful to you?

16) What are the 20 best things about you? What are the 20 worst things about you? What about 30 things? 40 things? How long can you make the list and which side is longer -- pros or cons?

17) Have you ever considered seeing a dietitian? Could they help you?

18) Do you like to exercise? Why or why not? What were your gym classes like when you were in school? Did you like them or hate them? Why do you think that is?

19) What is your family's attitude toward exercise and fitness? Are they the same as yours?

20) Have you ever been a compulsive exerciser? Why?

21) Does your size influence your sex life? Your relationships?

22) Name the situations that get you feeling bad about your body. How can you avoid these situations? Are they realistic? (ex: afraid to be seen in a bathing suit vs. having fun swimming and not caring what you look like). Does your size prevent you from leading a full, happy life?

23) Do you avoid wearing certain kinds of clothing? Why? Is it a problem with you or the clothes?

24) Do you find the clothes you like and want in your size? Yes or no? What do you do about it?

25) What outrageous comments have you gotten about your body size. How did you respond at the time? What do you wish you had said?

26) Try to remember the first time in your life that you were aware that you were fat (or thin, or short or tall or lesbigay or whatever). Write about that moment.

27) Write a letter to a part of your body. Tell that body part how it makes you feel, how it affects your life. Then imagine how that body part would respond to your letter; write its response as letter, too.

28)What is your family's attitude about your weight? How do they express that attitude? What has being fat (or being thin) taught you?

29)Look at an old snapshot of yourself. Describe how you felt about your body at the time of the photo and how you feel now when you look at the photo. Repeat the exercise with a current photo of yourself and try to imagine how it will look to you 10 or 20 years from now.

30)Describe one way you take joy in your body's size. Think of the most daring thing you've ever done. What influence did your body size have on that experience?

31) Have you ever experienced discrimination for being the size you are? Describe what happened.

32) Write a letter to a person that has made you feel bad about yourself or your body. What would that letter read? Write a letter to a person who made you feel great about yourself or your body. What would that letter read? Then burn the first, mail the second.

33) What comments have you gotten from romantic partners about your body size? How did you respond? And how did their attitude affect your relationship?

34) Pick a setting: school, work, a restaurant, a night club, your doctor's office, your therapist's office, the park, public transit, a movie theater, on vacation. Describe an incident when your body size was an issue in that setting.

35) Write about your attitude toward your body at different sizes: 150 pounds, 250 pounds, 350 pounds, etc. What do those numbers mean to you?

36) Write about your attitude toward your body at different ages: 5, 10, 15, 25, etc. Was there a difference before and after puberty? Explain what happened.

37) When in your life did you feel your were most yourself? How did your body image or self-esteem affect that?

38) What do you most want to be remembered for?

39) If you could be perfect, what would you be like? What would you look like? What would you do? What would you be able to accomplish? What is stopping you from doing all those things right now?

40) List all the things you don't want to think about or are avoiding confronting. Is your body one of them or is your body how you express your frustrations with these other things?

41) Have you ever "felt thin or "felt fat?" What exactly led to those feelings? Did you actually change in size or was it a mental thing?

42) What are you most scared of? Is your size a way to hide? If you are thin -- a way to blend into the wall? If you are large -- is fat a safety blanket -- a way to keep people at bay?

43) Stand naked in front of a mirror and take a long good look at all your parts. What do you see in the mirror? How do you feel about what you see?

44) What attitudes have you inherited from your family? What will you pass on? What do you want to change?

45) What have you done lately to cultivate self-worth? What else could you do?

46) Do you want to change your size/shape? List the reasons why or why not. Then sort them out by listing them in priority order. Are they realistic reasons? Irrational reasons? How do you feel about the reasons?

47) Think about yourself and how you work. Do you try to feel good from the inside out, or the outside in? What are the pros and cons to both approaches?

48) "Women and girls are also consistently taught from an early age that their self-worth is largely dependent on how they look." How do you feel about that? Is it true or false? Fair or not?

49) Shame seems to be another component of women's attitudes toward their bodies. Do you feel shame about your body? Why or why not? When did you realize you felt this way about yourself for the first time?

50) What about that Barbie thing? Did you have a Barbie? How did you play with her? What role, if any, do you think she plays in the shaping of little girl's self-images?

51) "The tendency to compare oneself to models that are portrayed by the media, increases with age." Do you think that is true? Do you compare yourself to what you see in the media?

52) "90-95% of all anorexics and bulimics are women. Women are more likely to suffer from depression and low self-esteem, accompanying body image dissatisfaction, then men." What do you think about that? How are your attitudes about yourself and your body different from the men in your life's attitudes toward theirs? Why do you think that is?

53) What do you think about boob job? Are they ok or not ok? Ok only in special circumstances? If you could have a boob job at no cost to you, would you? Why?

54) What do you think of cosmetic surgery in general? Where is it applicable?

55) What role did your mother have in your feelings about yourself and your shape? Grandmother? Aunt? What were the older women like as role models for you as a child? What older women are role models for you now?

56) Imagine a day when you look at yourself in the mirror with a feeling of satisfaction, not because your clothes hide your body, but because you like the body that's inside the clothes. Describe what that day would be like. Describe what you look like that day. Explain why that day can't be today.

57) Do you accept whatever labels or negative projections people try to slap on you? What sort of labels/projections are they? Do you pass them on to other people? How so?

58) Are there cases where self-acceptance can be taken too far? Describe these situations

59) How does your self-esteem pertain to your body image? Are they connected? Is one a barometer for the other? Elaborate.

60) What qualities do you find attractive in a partner/lover? List them. How many of those same qualities do you have?

61) Do you have kids? Been pregnant? How did this affect your self-image?

62) What do the words "fat" and "thin" mean? What do you associate with the terms?

63) What does a healthy body look like? A strong body? A beautiful body? Which do you want?

64) What makes you forget about your appearance? When you're spiking a volleyball or talking with a friend, for instance, do you forget that you think your hips are too round or your nose too big?

65) f you ever feel fat or unattractive, what is really going on? Last time you felt that way, what had just happened? Did something specific trigger the feeling?

66) What have you learned at home about being fat or thin? Do your parents diet? Feel self-conscious about their weight? Tease you? Are your friends' and peers' attitudes closer to your own views?

67) What did you eat today? Do you diet? What makes a balanced meal or a normal diet? Do you think you eat well? What are your favorite foods and why do you like them?

68) Do you get contradictory messages about food from TV or magazines, like ads for diet aids alongside information about healthy eating?

69) Do you thinks there are different types of beauty? What are they? Think of a few different people with different kinds of beauty. What do you feel when you see pictures of models? Of a Rubens painting? A female athlete?

70) Why do you think fertility goddesses were so big? Why would some cultures prize bigger women?

71) What's it like to be a girl these days? What's good and what's difficult? How do you think your experiences differ from boys', or from girls' of your mother's generation? What's hardest for parents to understand about your life?

72) What makes you feel good about yourself and what makes you feel proud? What kinds of situations make you feel comfortable?

73) Do you talk about "pigging out"? Do you say things like, "I'm going to be bad and have dessert"? What does that mean?

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