The Secrets to Finally Loving Your Body

I think it’s incredibly sad that young people develop eating disorders like anorexia. Beautiful young people get this notion into their head that they are ugly and fat and then begin the process of starving themselves. This insidious disease has claimed the lives of too many young people, but it’s not just the young who don’t love and respect their bodies. Even mature adults like us can be guilty of treating our bodies with disdain. We feel a bit of shame for our less than perfect shape – try to cover up that extra weight around our stomach, dress to hide bulging hips. Let me tell you one thing about your body. By being born with a body like yours is the equivalent of being given the keys to a top-line Mercedes sports car. Your wonderful body does so much for you every day. You walk to wherever you want to go. You carry and lift what you need. You have arms to hug the people you love and a functioning mouth to kiss those dearest to you. You are truly blessed, but how many of us give our bodies the love they deserve? Few of us! I’m the same. I’ve described this little body of mine as a garden gnome on steroids, but gee, has this body served me well. I’ve been able to run marathons and I’ve been blessed with remarkably good health.

You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone

It is not until you are injured that you really value how well your body serves you. When you have a bad hip or ankle or arm it’s suddenly hard to do things you once took for granted, that’s when you appreciate what your body does for you. Alternatively if you spend any time with a person with a disability – someone in a wheelchair for example – you suddenly become aware that this world is built for able-bodied people and they are forced to struggle through every day, navigating impossible situations.

Reward your amazing body with exercise

Sometimes I think people do not stay on exercise programs because they start out with a feeling of disdain for their bodies. They are exercising because they have all this wobbly fat on their stomachs and they hate it, or cellulite-rippled marks are appearing on their arms and it grosses them out. They start exercising because they are ashamed of their body, they hate their bodies and they give exercise a go for a few weeks, maybe a few months but then it all gets too hard and they drop out and decide the best solution is just to dress to hide their flaws. This is not the right approach. If you start an exercise program, remember to tell yourself that you have the most fantastically useful, wonderful body and it has served you well for years. Your body has allowed you to travel, work, play and love. You owe your body an eternal debt of gratitude.

You should be so grateful that right now I want you to give yourself a kiss – go on, do it, plant a big wet one on your hand this moment, and say, ‘Thank you beautiful body for serving me well.’

In what other ways can you thank your brilliant body for serving you? By rewarding it with a grease-and-oil change – by that I mean do some exercise and make that extraordinary body of yours even better.

Talk to your body in second person

I’ve found that when undertaking an exercise program, it’s sometimes helpful to chat to your body in second-person. You might say, “Hey, this might hurt you a little at first, but I’m only doing this because in the long run it’s for the best for both of us. And I know you’d rather be sipping coffee and eating cake somewhere but you will thank me for this later.”

Never start out exercising feeling shameful about your body. Never start a fitness campaign believing you’ve got a tough job on your hands trying to turn that piece of wobbly-lard body into muscle. Sure, there may be other people at the gym who’ve been there a long time and are in tip-top shape. Admire their beautiful bodies and respect their commitment to exercise, but remember you have been doing other important things while they have been exercising, and that is okay. You may have been running your own business, or bringing up children or renovating a house. They are all legitimate choices and you need to respect those choices, respect yourself and respect that marvellous body of yours that has over the years enabled you to live a good life. Do not ever feel shameful or inadequate when approaching exercise. Instead do your best and be confident that you will improve.

Children and body image

I read recently that many children as young as ten suffer from poor body image. The way Australian psychologists measure body dissatisfaction in children is with a tool called the Kids’ Eating Disorder scale (KEDS) body image silhouettes. This is made up of eight illustrated silhouettes of children ranging from very thin to very obese. There are separate sets for girls and boys. The child is first asked to select the silhouette that most looks like them now (self-rating), and then asked to select the silhouette they most want to look like (ideal rating). Each silhouette is scored and by subtracting the ideal from the self-rated image. Many children end up with a negative body satisfaction score believing at 10 years old that the are too large and ugly. No 10-year-old child is ever ugly! All 10-year-old children should know that they are beautiful and full of potential, but if we adults aren’t capable of loving our bodies, how can children learn to do this?

Instead we live in a society where we are daily confronted with images of supposed beauty defined by very narrow criteria. Magazines, TV and billboard posters tell us that to be beautiful you have to be young, thin and tall. That is rubbish. Everyone is born with a beautiful body and we should honour our bodies by giving these bodies good food and exercise. I don’t often do it to you, but I’m going to get a bit religious and look at what the Bible has to say about our bodies. 1 Corinthians 6: ‘Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you.’

Okay people, go out and get your temple in tip-top condition!