Body Image

When dieting and ramping up the exercise, I think it's really important to focus on developing a healthy body image, too. Otherwise, it is so easy to get lost in the noise of negative crap our culture send our way.

One thing I try to focus on is really enjoying how I feel after I exercise or after I eat a really satisfying, healthy lunch. This stuff makes my body feel good, and I try to pay attention to and appreciate that.

One of my favorite blogs had an interesting post on body image recently, and I recommend reading the post as well as the comments. Here is one of my favorite comments:

As one of those people who is sometimes Publicly Fat In A Bikini, I freely admit that oftentimes, I’m faking it. It gets easier with practice to stuff those insecurities in a dark hole and go out anyway — but the insecurities haven’t gone away.

In order to be physically fit you sometimes have to force yourself off the couch and into those gym clothes. Similarly, in order to have a healthy body image, sometimes your self-confidence will be forced. I think that's okay, and I think it's really important to fake it, rather than indulge in self-deprecating comments.

I'm relearning how to treat my body, from the food I eat to my exercise habits. I also have to teach myself a new, kinder way of thinking about myself. The truth is, there is no magic number that we can read on the scale that will absolve our body image insecurities. You have to build up that self esteem as you're building up those muscles, and you can't be self-deprecating "until" the scale says x, or you'll never learn how to like the way you look.