We all deserve a body we LOVE!
Many people are surprised to find that I struggled with body image, being the thin fitness lover that I am.
It's hard to know exactly when the struggle started, it was more of a progression. An idea adopted in my early teens that evolved into reality as I moved into my 20's.
Growing up as a woman in this world. I was constantly comparing my body against others and allowing myself to feel bad because my body didn't measure up.
I have never been overweight by any means, but even still, I wasn't completely happy with my body, and because of that I did not have a lot of confidence.
This is why I refuse to use any words about 'weight-loss' or 'fat' loss' for my Body Love program (even though that's what sells). That, and the fact that you don't have to have excess fat on your body to struggle with body image.
I know now, I was not alone in feeling this way.
Statistics show, approximately 91% of women are unhappy with their bodies and turn to dieting to achieve their ideal body shape. However, only about 5% of women naturally possess the body type often portrayed by the media.
Body image actually has little to do with how we look.
It’s how we think and FEEL about how we look.
You can be told to just love yourself, read quotes about it, and even understand it in theory...but it's NOT that easy.
We can't just talk ourselves into loving our body.
And the irony about diets, or weight-loss programs is that it's almost impossible to do the work when our minds aren't on board with us.
We can self sabotage which leads to more shame about not having control of ourselves, especially when we really do know what's good or bad for us.
Body Love is not about the outward appearance.
This program is for any age, shape, size or gender.
Not loving your body can lead to many obsessive or unhealthy behaviours, such as comparing our bodies to others, over eating, under eating, too much exercise, too little exercise, OCD, anxiety, social anxiety, depression and more.
This unhealthy mindset often leads us on an endless search for the best diet, superfood, meal plan, trainer, supplement, detox, cleanse, exercise program etc. to finally find the THING that will change us.
I had areas of my body I would look at in the mirror and criticize. Whether they were just thoughts I believed about myself, was made to believe by someone else or they were/are straight up facts.
These thoughts would occupy my mind several times a day. On top of that, I had this idea that I had to struggle in order to stay slim and healthy.
I was constantly worrying about my future body as well; thinking as I aged it would be harder to stay slim and/or I'd have more aches and pains (and at one point did), and maybe my body would stop being able to do the things it once could.
Not only did I have a bad relationship with my body, but I didn't have a great relationship with food either. I was hard on myself when I could not control my cravings and felt like I had to restrict myself, count calories and struggle to keep my body looking fit.
I wasted A LOT of mental energy on how I looked and never felt I was good enough.
I was frustrated. I felt I was eating really healthy, restricting myself with food and spending too much time at the gym not to see the results I deserved.
It makes me so sad to remember how I felt, and how many other beautiful men or women might be feeling about themselves.
We all have perceived flaws and imperfections, it's a part of being human. But I think we forget this sometimes when we compare ourselves to perfectly angled and filtered images on social media. Or photoshopped images of unrealistic looking humans in magazines or on the internet. Photoshop is used to take out "imperfections" and simply erase or enhances other areas. This is not beauty.
We have a false idea about what it means to be human and therefore what it means to be BEAUTIFUL.
You are BEAUTIFUL just as you are <3