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.

Shop the Perimeter

I was listening to Mark Bittman on NPR a while back, and he was talking about how when we grocery shop our goal should be to shop the perimeter. The perimeter of the grocery store is where you find fruits, veggies, dairy products, meat and poultry and fish; it's where the unprocessed stuff lives. I really like this approach. I am in this because I want to fundamentally change the way I nourish my body, so I've got to adjust the way I shop and prepare foods.

I am lucky in that I work from home, and during the summer I have a lighter schedule. This means I am only going to eat what is in my house (no free cookies at the office, no lunches out with co-workers). So I make a point to buy only foods that are healthy and then, for me, that's the only option.

With this approach in mind, here is a list of foods I always have in my fridge/cabinets these days:

• veggies, veggies, veggies
• fruit (my favs are apples & bananas)
• hummus (oh, the hummus!)
• black beans
• whole wheat wraps
• almonds
• cottage cheese
• yogurt (low in sugar, and not filled with that fake sugar crap. i end up with slightly more expensive yogurt from whole foods but it is worth it.)
• brown rice
• chicken breasts (grilled with my trusty george forman)
• cheerios and other similar cereals (except for special k. that stuff is cardboard if you ask me.)
  
• eggs (i make scrambled eggs with one yolk and two whites)
• seltzer water (I have a sweet tooth like nobody's business, so I'm trying to reduce it's hold over me. Turns out juice has lots and lots of sugar.)

My basic approach is as follows: Surround myself with really good, healthy food. I aim for three meals a day, with two snacks. This part was a hard adjustment for me, because I was more used to three big meals, but now my meals are smaller and I snack throughout the day. As much as this was an adjustment, I really like it because the focus is on nourishing your body. Also, it keeps your metabolism up.

What do you stock your fridge with? I'm afraid that my list of fall-back foods is small and I might start getting a little bored, so I welcome your suggestions!

The Lady Diet

Kyley here.

Yesterday I had an appointment with my trainer, Nicole, at the gym. She's totally wonderful and I wish I could got to work out with her every single day. It was also my first workout after about three weeks of traveling for work and vacation, and let me tell you I am SORE today.

I'd really like to break into a regular routine of exercise for health and anxiety reasons, but I'm so wary of falling into the traps of cultural diet and body image pressures.

Sometimes I want to totally pig out as a mini form of rebellion. Additionally, if I'm out to dinner I desperately don't want to be *that girl* who orders a salad to everyone's cheese burger. I'm learning to order the salad and not feel bad about it (I genuinely like fruits and veggies.) but it's a strange struggle for me.

Food and diet is such a difficult issue to navigate for women (and men). I'm trying to develop healthy habits AND a healthy self esteem about my body.

What do you think? How do you navigate the world of diet and weightloss? Do you worry about all those cultural pressures, or have you managed to drown the noise out?

And, for no reason other than love, I leave you with this: