Body image

Negative body image and body dysmorphia are something that I feel are so present at the moment, and something I feel is getting increasingly getting worse in women. In my opinion, if you were to ask any woman if there's anything she doesn't like about herself or her body I can almost guarantee she will be able to give at least one thing.

People with a negative body image feel that their looks do not measure up to what society, family, friends, or the media expect. Negative body image isn't considered a mental illness, but it is what can be the start of problems such as body dysmorphia and eating disorders, which both are very much mental illnesses. A subject which is very serious, but I feel both are extremely relevant, and extremely common these days. 

Working in the health & fitness industry, negative body imaging is something I see and feel a great deal of. This is how I feel able to discuss the topic and share my opinion on the matter, as I see it happening so much. Clients come to me and say they hate the way they look, they hate how 'fat' their arms, legs, and tummy are. They want to start training to lose weight so they will 'look' better. I also believe that people sometimes think that if they lose weight it will fix all the problems in their life. It doesn't, people don't instantly feel much happier once they've lost weight, because we have to fix the real problems that there are in order for that to happen. The problem often is low self-esteem and low confidence.

Women now are under so much pressure to look good. To bounce back to the pre-baby body quickly, and to look a certain way to fit in. If you look at magazines when a celebrity gains weight it will be the top story, and they will be ridiculed for it. But why is this allowed to happen? Celebrities are still humans with feelings. We are now all forced to believe we have to look a certain way to be considered beautiful, fit, and strong, but we are all individuals and that's what makes humans so great. It's no wonder so many of us have negative body images because we are constantly under an immense amount of pressure to be in 'perfect' shape. I think now with the use of Instagram the problem has worsened, women look at these amazing pictures of skinny and fit girls in bikinis and think 'I want to look like her', so people are always comparing themselves to others. When logging onto social media we are setting ourselves up to feel bad about ourselves! But the truth is you will never look like that girl because you are not that girl and that is perfectly fine because you are beautiful too.

Leading onto my next point and thinking about exercise, we now are able to see every girl's workout regime and are now more likely to feel guilty if we aren't doing the same. When you think about it, what's your own personal reason for working out? Is it because you hate your body? (wrong!) Or is it because you love your body and want to look after it? (right!). 

Punishing yourself by exercising more because you've eaten too much or eaten 'bad' food, is only ever going to lead you to have a problematic relationship with food and exercise. We need to remember that exercise shouldn't be about punishing ourselves, it should be about loving our body and enjoying something that is really good for us. Our bodies are incredible, what they allow us to do and how they work, I think sometimes we need to try and remember just how lucky we really are.

Instead of using exercise as punishment, we should use it to challenge our bodies and we should use it to build up strength in our bodies, both physically and mentally. We all know exercising releases endorphins, which is what makes us feel happy, so enjoy the exercise you are doing and revel in the feeling of accomplishment we get when we've finished a great workout.

So how do we fix the problem we have with negative body image? It's time for us all to try to learn to start loving ourselves again. Every morning when you look in the mirror to get ready, look at your body and think of as many things as you that love about yourself or your body and focus on them. Do this each day and it won't be long before you start appreciating yourself again. I know this is probably a lesson I need to try to do myself too, as I can't say I'm not affected by negative body imaging as well as many others. So to finish I want to share with you a photo of me, in which I feel most exposed! I hope you find this post helpful and have learnt a little from it. I REALLY want you to love yourself.