Love Your Body
Have you ever really thought how much you’re influenced by the people you interact with, both in-person and online? Would you ever stop and consider just how much that influence is impacting how you feel about your own body image?!
A preliminary study published in 2019 found that young women who spent time with people that were not preoccupied with their appearance or body shape or weight, had a greater appreciation for their own bodies. They were also more likely to follow healthy eating habits by responding to their body’s own hunger, with less fixation on unhealthy weight and diet goals.
The reality is that how we view our own body image often has a knock on effect on many other areas of our lives, including our relationships, our mood, confidence and self-esteem to name an obvious few.
Just be mindful of the sub-concious influence that others are having on your overall health. Be careful what (and how much) you choose to consume online or on TV. Instead of focusing on what you want to change about your own body, show an abundence of gratitude towards it and all the remarkable things that it does for you to make you the incredible person you already are!
This week’s challenge is to avoid any thoughts, or entering into any conversations, that are “body-focused”. Be careful who and what could influence you from achieving this and find ways to navigate around it. Aim also to minimise your own use of mirrors and cameras this week too, but when you do so, it won’t hurt to pay yourself a quick compliment (but then move on).
Keeping good company and having purposeful goals along with good eating and exercise habits, is often a great formula to help you keep loving your amazing body! And remember, health can exist in all shapes and sizes.
Have a lovely week.
#HealthyHabits
Source: Kathryn Miller, Allison Kelly, Elizabeth Stephen. Exposure to body focused and non-body focused others over a week: A preliminary investigation of their unique contributions to college women’s eating and body image. Body Image, 2019; 28: 44 DOI: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2018.12.003
