Five Ways to Improve Your Body Image

Many dieters struggle with body image. If you’re trying to lose weight, there’s a fair probability that part of your motivation is that you want your body to look different. Perhaps you’d like to have a smaller waist, slimmer thighs, or more toned arms.

Even while you’re making healthy progress, though, it’s important to work on your body image. It’s not healthy to hate yourself, or to think that you’re ugly – because you’re not.

If your feelings towards your body are less than kind, here are five simple ways to start improving your body image.

1. Focus on What’s Already Good

Firstly, don’t just think about how you want to look in a year’s time. Focus on what you already love about your body. Perhaps you have great skin, or wonderful hair. Maybe you really like your neck, or your feet, or your bottom. You could try listing five things which you genuinely like about your body. Here’s mine:

• My neck (which has always been slender – even when I was a chubby teen!)
• My long, thick hair
• My small frame and delicate hands
• Being fit enough that I can take part in all the activities I want to do
• My fingernails (which always grow nice and shapely)

(Tip: If you’re struggling to think what you like best, try working down your body from the top of your head to the tip of your toes.)

2. Dress for Confidence

When you’re not happy with your figure, it’s tempting to hide under layers of clothes, or to wear shapeless garments in drab colors. Rather than treating your body as something to disguise, find outfits which make you feel good in your skin.

If you’re not very confident when it comes to buying clothes (and I know I’m not!) then find a trusted friend or relative who can come with you and offer some advice. You might even book a personal shopper service.
Whatever your shape or size, you can wear clothes which fit well, which are comfortable and which express something of “you” to the world.

3. Treat Your Body Kindly

Our bodies can be frustrating at times. Perhaps you hate it when you’ve eaten well all week yet the scales haven’t budged. Maybe you get annoyed when you find yourself struggling to keep up with friends on a walk.

Often, we’re tempted to be unkind to ourselves – and this can manifest in the way which we treat our bodies. At one extreme end of the spectrum, this can go as far as self-harm. But there are also less obvious forms of aggression (like not eating when we’re hungry, or carrying on exercising when we feel ill) which send the same messages.

Taking care to treat your body kindly signals that you’re respecting your physical strengths and limitations. You’ll become more comfortable in your own skin, and happier about yourself.

4. Be Realistic!

Have you ever looked at a celebrity or fashion magazine, only to end up pinching a roll of fat or glaring at your reflection in the mirror? Sadly, many magazines hold up ridiculous standards of thin-ness – promoting unhealthy models and airbrushing photos in order to make their glossy covesr even more unrealistic.

Think about it: most of the people you see at work or in your neighborhood don’t look anything like that. They’re a representative bunch – not the figures on television or in magazines. You don’t need to look like a model (and if you did, you’d probably be dangerously underweight).

Being realistic about your body image means realizing what’s normal. Having some “jiggly” bits and soft, fatty patches is perfectly normal and healthy.

5. Focus on What Your Body Can Do

Finally, a good way to stop obsessing about your looks is to start thinking about what your body can do. After all, what you look like doesn’t really matter all that much – but what you can accomplish does matter.

If you’re a woman, your body is able to carry a baby to term. That’s a pretty impressive feat. Whatever gender you are, your body can fight off disease, and heal itself when skin, muscles and bones are damaged. You might be able to walk long distances, or run hard when necessary. You may even have particular physical skills, like being able to ski, or ride a bike.

Whatever your body looks like, give yourself permission to be proud of it!