Do you have a healthy body image?

I was at the pool today and I overheard two young girls (like 9 years old) talking about how fat their thighs were and how they need to lose weight. These girls were miniature and I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I think as women we are attacked daily about not feeling pretty, thin, and/or young enough. Satan has really figured something out by getting us down about our body and self esteem he can keep us from building up the kingdom and serving others. Poor body images are starting younger and younger. There has to be something we can do. Hopefully this post will give everyone a few insights on their body image and ways to make it a better.

With a positive or healthy body image, a woman has a real perception of her size and shape, and she feels comfortable with her body. With a negative body image, a woman has a distorted perception of her shape and size, compares her body to others, and feels shame and anxiety about her body. Being unhappy with your body can affect how you think and feel about yourself as a person. A poor body image can also lead to emotional distress, low self-esteem, dieting, anxiety, depression, and eating disorders. Developing a positive body image and a healthy mental attitude is crucial to a woman's happiness.

If you think you have a negative body image you are not alone. Women in the U.S. are under pressure to measure up to a certain ideal of beauty, which can lead to poor body image. Women are constantly bombarded with perfect celebrities in movies, models on magazines, people on TV, the super slim coworker who looks amazing, etc. By presenting an ideal that is so difficult to achieve and maintain, the cosmetic and diet product industries are assured growth and profits.

We all want to look our best, but a healthy body is not always linked to appearance. In fact, healthy bodies come in all shapes and sizes! Changing your body image means changing the way you think about your body. At the same time, healthy lifestyle choices are also key to improving body image. Make lifestyle changes: eat right, exercise, sleep 8 hours, and just take care of yourself. If you do these things you're naturally going to feel better about yourself. Along with making lifestyle changes, try not to obsess about what size pants you're wearing or what number the scale reads. If you need to lose weight to be healthy and get back to your natural weight that's one thing, but if your trying to force your 150 pound frame to be 20 pounds lighter you are never going to be happy.

It's definitely a process to change one's body image. Keep working at it and take it a day at a time. Hopefully if we all keep working together and encourage our sisters, friends, daughters, etc. we can change so many people's negative body image mindset to a more positive one.