How to know if you have a healthy body image_ Ep2

This is a podcast called Beauty Talks with The Fit, which aims to promote self-love and self-acceptance. They believe that all bodies are perfect and want to free women from dieting and body shame. They discuss the importance of having a healthy body image, which means feeling content and happy with your physical appearance. This doesn't mean never feeling discontent or unhappy, but rather not letting those feelings affect your quality of life. They suggest focusing on what your body can do rather than how it looks, being realistic about your size and goals, avoiding media and social comparisons, being kind to yourself, and wearing clothing that makes you feel confident. The goal is to accept and embrace your unique beauty. This is Beauty Talks with The Fit, where we get together with like-minded women to discuss our personal journey to self-love and self-acceptance. We are a movement of women who want to free ourselves from constant diet pains, body shame, and social conditioning and behaviors that hold us back from living our biggest, boldest, and most beautiful lives. On this corner of the internet, we believe all bodies are the perfect fit. As we journey together to self-acceptance, we remind our fit baddies there is nothing wrong with your body and the only thing that needs adjusting is how you view your curves and, of course, your favorite undergarments from The Fit. Welcome to the Body Acceptance Podcast. Welcome to Beauty Talks with The Fit. Hey, baddies. Welcome to Episode 2 of Beauty Talks with The Fit. I'm your host, Nailing Demande, founder of The Fit, an underwear line for curvy bodies. I wanted to start today's episode with a quote from the fabulously thick baddie, Golden Globe Award nominee, and Independent Spirit Award winning actress, Deborah Sidibe, or Sidibe for our American business. Her quote says, One day, I had to sit down with myself and decide that I loved myself no matter what my body looked like and what other people thought about my body. Listen, baddies, I feel like this could be our community's anthem. This quote embodies the message we are trying to get across with this podcast. We are not perfect and we are not trying to be. We just want to be okay in our skin. This quote is a perfect introduction also for our topic today, which is how to know if you have a healthy body image. And isn't that just a breath of fresh air? Many of us have, unfortunately, years of experience with negative view of our body image. But what does the opposite of that look like? We can talk all day about how we feel in our skin. Some people are okay with their looks, others want to make just the slightest adjustments, and some are perfectly content with their physical appearance. Go you, by the way, we're all trying to be like you. Wherever you may fall in the spectrum of body image acceptance, we all need to have an understanding of what we mean by a healthy body image. And for all the unhealthy and conflicting views we have about our appearances, the true definition of a healthy body image is really very simple. A healthy body image is a state where you feel content and sometimes even happy about your physical appearance. And that doesn't even mean you will suddenly never have a moment of discontent about your body or be unhappy here and there, or even that you love every part of your body all of the time. Absolutely not. But what it does mean is that your discomfort or complaints about your body are not leaving you with body issues that affect your quality of life and how you choose to show up in the world. That is, you need to let that dead weight go. And that is not saying we shouldn't look after our health and now start to eat junk food every day and not move our bodies, because that is absolutely the thing that you should do. You should focus on the things that are good for us, like eating, eating well, and working out. That is so good for us beyond just the physical benefits. A healthy body boils down to self-worth and knowing that you are valuable, that you are enough and worthy regardless of how you look. Body image is just one aspect of who we are. And if we choose to look at ourselves in our entirety, because how many of you are bringing the thunder in your workplaces? How many of you are looking after the most vulnerable amongst us, women and children in need? You are sisters, you are spouses, daughters, friends, mothers, and the list goes on. I really believe that if you start to see yourself as a whole, and more than just the physical, you might surprise yourself and actually fall in love with the whole version of you. You won't be shaken by whether or not you liked how you looked in the mirror this morning, because you understand that there is a lot more to you than what the mirror tells you. That is where we want to be. But how do we get to that version of ourselves? So then, let's talk about some of the steps we can take to feel better in our forever home. 1. Focus on what your body can do and not what it looks like. This goes back to the point we made earlier about the importance of exercise. This could be anything. Whether you like jogging, tennis, hiking, yoga, dancing, whatever activity you enjoy. When you make a conscious effort to appreciate the way your body performs in these activities, it will be much easier to appreciate your body in its current form, because it's working for you. When you start to appreciate the beautiful things your body does every day, it can radically change the way you see yourself. 2. Be realistic about your specific size. Not all of us are petite, 20-year-old, size 28 and 1.8 meters tall, basically the ideal model body. Listen, I'm 30-something, just over 160 centimeters tall and a size 36. At my age and with my stats, it's not realistic. And that goes for a large part of the population, by the way. Yet, there's this frankly ridiculous idea that everyone can be like that if we try hard enough, diet enough or gym hard enough. And when you don't fit into this unrealistic mold, you start to dislike yourself for not meeting this ideal. That is, this is actually part of diet culture. We'll be talking about this in subsequent episodes, but for now, let's get back to the point. Choose goals that are realistic for you. How do you want your body to feel? What foods can you eat to make you feel that way? What activities make you feel strong and accomplished in your current form? Do more of that. Stay away from the media and the socials. They are just trying to sell magazines anyway. And half of those people are photoshopped with piles of makeup on them, posing in specific ways to make their bodies look ethereal. It is simply not true. It's a scam! Those images do not represent real life, so stop measuring your self-worth against them. Please be mindful of how you talk to yourself. Give yourself a break and show yourself some compassion. Life is challenging enough, and the least we can do is give ourselves a little bit of grace and remember to take things one step at a time. We are getting there. We're working on it. And by virtue of being aware of it means we can do better for ourselves. 5. Wear clothing and underwear that makes you feel like a boss. You know that feeling, that awful feeling of wearing something uncomfortable all day and then feeling miserable for it? Oh my gosh, I actually did that one of the days. I had a work event and I wore these horribly, well new but so uncomfortable shoes and I just was so uncomfortable the whole day. All the way through my work event in the evening. So, don't do that. Find outfits that flatter your current shape and wear more of those to boost your confidence. Buddies, these are just 5 steps we can take now to feel better in our bodies. There are countless more, but our aim is just to start. So how do we start? Know that we are more than our physical appearance. We have so many other meaningful roles in our lives that go beyond what we look like. We need to focus on what feels good to us and do more of that. If you want to incorporate healthier eating, do that. If you want to play tennis instead of lifting weights, do that. Just move your body. And don't measure your self-worth against unrealistic standards of beauty portrayed by the media. Be kind to yourself and be mindful of how you speak to yourself. Wear clothing that makes you feel confident. And if you can do all this, buddy, you are well on your way to having a healthy body image. Thank you so much for tuning in to Beauty Talks with the Fits. I hope that this episode and every episode after this brings you closer to fully accepting your unique beauty. If you want to be part of our body acceptance movement, be sure to hit that follow button so you never miss an episode. And make sure to leave a review to help us reach more baddies just like you. Remember, you are more than your physical appearance. And you deserve to live a big, bold and beautiful life free of insecurity. Bye baddies. See you in the next one. Bye.