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How
to feel good about your body
 Loving
our bodies is tough. Approximately 38 percent of American women are
dissatisfied with their looks and only 7 percent are "very
happy" with their appearance, research shows. While these
self-perceptions might boost the cosmetic and plastic-surgery industries,
they don't promote a positive body image or good health.
Weight has increasingly become the focus
of body dissatisfaction over the last two decades. Often the concern is
unfounded: In one survey, 47 percent of the women who were actually normal
weight felt they were overweight. However, many of those who do have
unhealthy levels of body fat have become frustrated with the pressure to
achieve the "ideal." After seemingly endless cycles of dieting,
guilt and frustration they give up. How did we become so out of touch with
our bodies?
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Our perceptions of our bodies are
learned. Childhood experiences, maturational changes and our culture all
contribute to our overvalued beliefs about physical appearance and body
weight. The ever-increasing influence of movies, TV and magazines have
altered our view of our bodies. Daily images of models, actors and
professional athletes with exceptional beauty and fantastic physiques
suggest that such bodies are real and attainable by everyone. Such images
and the misinformation foisted on us by the media are misleading, and
dismiss the strong effects of genetics and physiology on individual
responses to diet and exercise.
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You can learn to love your body. Moderate
exercise, healthy eating and relaxation can transport you to a place of
self-acceptance. Try these strategies to help you gain a healthy body
image:
- Treat your body with respect.
The body is an amazing organism that is beautifully complex in its
physiology. It requires moderate exercise, healthy food choices, sensual
pleasures, social interaction, secure holding, hugging and relaxation.
Provide your body with a balance of these things and you will experience
enhanced health and function.
Provide yourself with small
indulgences on a regular basis.
Take a warm bath with aromatic salts or ask a family member or friend
for a foot massage. Treat yourself to a half-day off in the middle of
the workweek. Try a new haircut or get a manicure. Self-care will help
you feel better about yourself and reconnect you with your body.
Acknowledge the connection between
body image and self-concept.
By acknowledging the relationship between the two you can begin to
disconnect feelings of self-worth from changes in body weight or
perceived imperfections.
Decide where you want to spend your
energies. Consider this:
Americans spend more on beauty and fitness aids than they do on social
services or education. What are your true priorities? Ask yourself if
you really want to spend significant amounts of precious life and
creative energy in the pursuit of the elusive "perfect body."
Whose image is it anyway?
Expand your activities.
Add new interests to your life such as gardening, collecting, decorating
or music. Take a university extension or community college course.
You'll meet new people, enrich your intellectual life and receive
feedback on qualities other than your physical appearance.
Scrutinize your appearance less.
Spend less time in front of the mirror and get rid of the scale. Accept
your limitations. If you engage in exercise, eat healthy foods and take
time for relaxation, then you have done all you can for the day. Spend
most of your time enjoying life and less time obsessing.
Change the focus of exercise.
Emphasize the health and fitness benefits of exercise in your program,
not the weight loss. Don't become compulsive about your regime. If you
miss a day, no big deal. Broaden the scope to include activities you
perceive as enjoyable such as gardening, carpentry or sports. A recent
study out of the Norwegian University for Sport and Physical Education
revealed that exercise participation, with or without dietary
intervention, enhanced body perception, fitness, social comfort and
self-perceptions of physical ability.
Learn to accept your perceived
imperfections with honesty and inner peace.
This can help you become less vulnerable to the culturally defined
standards of beauty. Turn your negative thoughts about certain body
segments into positive attributes. For example, the female pattern of
fat storage in the hips and thighs may actually reflect a lower risk of
heart disease!
Realize you are not alone!
Unfortunately, the majority of women — and a growing number of men —
feel insecure about their bodies. Fight the trend toward a culturally
defined standard of beauty that increases self-consciousness and limits
your self-efficacy. Nurture a healthy self-acceptance in yourself and
others; it can lead to personal growth and happiness.
Don't let the media control your image of
beauty or disempower you. To paraphrase a great saying: Develop the habits
to change what you can through healthy lifestyle practices, the peace of
mind to accept what you cannot change, and the wisdom to know the
difference.
Sheila King is an
exercise physiologist at UCLA with more than 15 years of experience. She
is a certified Program Director of the American College of Sports
Medicine, and a trainer of personal trainers at UCLA Extension.
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