This week, I want you to spend the whole week feeling bad about yourself, telling yourself that you’re ugly, and asking yourself why you keep messing up.

JUST KIDDING!!

Please, please, please don’t do that. It’s funny, though (or sick), because as awful as it sounds for me to instruct you to do so, so many of us actually do spend our weeks thinking exactly that way.

This week, take one of your most oft-repeated negative thoughts and turn it into a positive affirmation. For example, if you’re feeling ugly, affirm no less than 25 times a day, “I am beautiful!” I don’t care whether or not you believe it right now (though you should believe it). I just want you to say it.

“I am beautiful.” Say it.

Always use the present tense. Make your affirmation related to whatever negative thought is most common in your life. You can write this affirmation or say it to yourself, aloud or internally. Extra points for saying it while looking in the mirror!

Read more about positive affirmations at Soul Food.

Golda is a certified holistic health counselor and founder of Body Love Wellness. She counsels women and men throughout the country on how to get off the dieting roller coaster, give their bodies what they really crave, and love their bodies and themselves. Golda's counseling and activism work have been featured on CBS's The Early Show, ABC's Nightline and Time Out New York. For more support with healing your relationship with food and your body, sign up for the Body Love Wellness Newsletter and receive your free download — Golda’s Top Ten Tips For Divine Dining.