If you want a body that you don't currently have…
If you dislike certain parts of your body…
If you think that your life will be better once you reach your ideal body weight, I wrote this to help you.
I want to show you how to love and appreciate your body exactly as it is, accept the areas you can’t change, and help you create the body you truly want.
But it can be tough to remain focused on the parts of your body you love, instead of what you think is wrong with it. Cultivating a healthy body image can be extremely difficult with such a strong influence from photos of celebrities and models.
Often, women have an unrealistic expectation for what their body should look like – a CrossFit athlete, a Victoria's Secret model or a friend who's had four kids and you would never even know.
Instead of taking into consideration your own body type, strengths and physical limits, are you creating an unrealistic expectation in your head about what you should look like based on a photo in a magazine?
So if you aren’t satisfied with how your body looks but want to love and enjoy your body more while creating the body you truly want. Here's where to start.
1. Begin by becoming consciously aware of the unrealistic body ideals created by our culture. Unfortunately we live in a culture that celebrates skinny, instead of healthy. A culture that reinforces that the closer you are to a size zero, the better. Be aware of these manipulative messages and consciously ignore them. Because the truth is, your life does not magically get better and your problems don't spontaneously resolve once you reach your ideal body weight.
There was a point in my life that I truly believed this. I believed that if I lost enough weight, I would be more attractive to other people. I thought I would get acknowledgement for being disciplined and hard working and motivated. I believe that once I was a size zero I would be happier. And you know what happened once I got there? I weighed less, much less, but still had all the same problems (and more) than when I weighed four sizes more.
So please be aware of our culture's influence on ideal body image, and consciously fight to ignore them.
2. Next, motivate yourself to focus on what's strong with your body, not what's wrong. It can be difficult to look in the mirror and see anything other than the parts of your body you don't like – your wide hips, your crooked nose, your stretch marks.
And it's ok to notice these areas, to accept that they are there, but also make sure you pay attention to the areas you absolutely love about your body. Maybe it is your strong shoulders or thighs, or that fact that your body is capable of squatting a ton of weight at the gym now, or that you are able to endure a run without being out of breath, or that you had the stamina to give birth to three beautiful children.
Once you have found something strong to focus on, celebrate it! Wear clothes that show off your strong shoulders or shorts that show off your legs (or don’t… just do what feels good for you!)
Focus on eating real food, prioritize sleep, move your body daily, and strive to meet all of your other Life By Design requirements and I promise you will also notice a difference in how vibrant your appearance is and how good you feel about yourself overall.
Your second step is to not just look at the superficial aspects of your body, but to appreciate what your body is capable of doing.
3. Last, recognize and accept your body's physical limitations. No matter how hard you train or how consistently you Eat By Design there are aspects of your body that you cannot change – your height, your age, whether you've had children or not, your body type (width of your hips, broadness of your shoulders). Accept that your body has limitations, appreciate what it can do, and be objective in setting realistic goals for areas you want to change.
Throughout this process, remember to speak kindly to yourself. Speak to yourself as if you were talking to a friend, your daughter, your mother or your sister. Would you call her fat and ugly? Of course not, so why say those things to yourself?
So please focus on what is strong, focus on the positive, not on what is wrong. Accept that your body has limitations that you cannot change. Don't allow our culture’s body image ideals influence your perception. And create realistic goals that you know you are capable of achieving with the correct support, resources and plan.
For more simple By Design recipes why not pick up your copy of the Eat By Design Cookbook. I’ve created it in the form of a 28-day meal plan (plus grocery lists!) so you don’t need to think about what’s for breakfast, lunch or dinner for the next month. Or you can grab the first 7 days FREE by clicking here.
Thank you to Dr. Diana Brickell for her answer to this question on her podcast Philosophy In Action.