RogerI just wanted to give you a quick opinion of mine today. It’s now a few weeks into the new year, and have you changed your body image in your mind yet? The question is, does your own body image influence your food choices? I believe we can be our own worst influence and conversly our own best influence, therefore I think it does quite heavily. The body image you have in your mind has a lot to do with what you stick in your gob, so let’s get further into it so that you can see what image I’m seeing.
What is body image exactly? Technically you can refer to it as the subjective concept of ones physical appearance based on self-observation and the reactions of others. Therefore if you think your unhealthy then you’ll most likely eat unhealthy, but let’s explore this further. If we looked at our bodies as unhealthy and overweight, do you really think you could continually feed it healthy foods to fuel your unhealthy body? I doubt it, it’s kind of like an internal conflict of interest. It’s like on one side you’re trying to force good food down your body, but internally you still haven’t resolved the fat person image you have of yourself. Including all the beliefs that come with that fat person.
You see the way we see our bodies influences everything we do in life almost, from what we eat to what we wear. Am I right? Sorry, but when I was fat, I tended to wear baggier clothes (check out the photo over to the right). Now that I’m trimmer, I wear more fitting ones. But, let’s look at body builders for example, do you think they have a negative image of themselves? Most likely not. They look at their bodies as a picture of perfection always trying to improve on it and constantly feeding the right healthy foods to ensure that picture of perfection is constantly improved or at least maintained. If that body builder was once someone who was once over weight, they may have used a once negative body image to their advantage, and then learnt how to manage the negative and postive body image they hold of themselves.
Of course when we talk about your body in general, you don’t have to look at yourself as a body builder. Although it wouldn’t hurt, I think that people trying to lose weight permanently need to start with improving their perception of how they look, right from the start of their journey. This is done simply by having a more positive view of your body, even at the overweight or obese stage. If you want to checkout an amazing documentary that was filmed in the 90’s, to help improve your body image then check this post out – Secrets of Body For Life Champions.
If you start thinking that you are getting more and more perfect everyday, you’ll be more inclined to allow your body image influence the healthy foods you’ll eat. Don’t try and believe that you look perfect right now though- when clearly you have some work to do. But it’s more about having small thoughts consistently that you are progressing positivetly on your body each day. This will help you to improve, increase and maintain weight loss and your mental health in general. What your mind focuses on is what you get and that’s is simple truth really when it come to the body image your hold of yourself. The body image you focus on will no doubt dictate the food you eat.
Let me know what you think? How have you over come body image challenges?
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