How to have a healthy relationship. With your body.

This time of year can kick off a load of self-loathing when it comes to our bodies. In fact, I reckon the diet and fitness industries bank on us being dissatisfied with our bodies after Christmas to guarantee another year of revenue.

So, before you make that unrealistic New Year’s Resolution or buy that expensive gym membership, how about trying to change the relationship you have with your body?

Now, I’m not saying that it’s bad to have fitness goals or to aim for a healthy lifestyle etc. but what I am saying is that these things are easier if your body is not your enemy.

Working as a therapist I often hear people saying terrible, nasty, unkind things about their bodies. Things that they would not dream of saying about their friend’s bodies.

So when did our bodies become our enemy?

Well, I don’t know the answer to this, but I do know that learning to love your body can revolutionise your life. 

Don’t believe me?

Then ask yourself this question…

What IF, every time you looked in the mirror, you saw a body you LOVE?

Be great wouldn’t it?

So… instead of trying to change your body to match some unobtainable ideal, why don’t we all just start learning to love the body we have? The result would be the same: looking in the mirror and seeing a body we love.

If this sounds good to you, here are 10 tips I have put together to help:

1. STOP weighing yourself – the number will NEVER make you happy.
2. STOP examining your body in the mirror. Stop pinching, prodding and measuring. Stop focusing on the bits you don’t like and see the bigger picture.
3. START to celebrate how AMAZING your body is! Consider all of the incredible things your body can do.
4. Buy clothes that fit and feel comfortable, REGARDLESS of the size in the label.
5. STOP using exercise as a way of getting rid of calories. Exercise should be used to celebrate what your body can achieve, not to punish yourself for what you have consumed.
6. STOP poisoning your body with alcohol, cigarettes and other drugs. It’s hard to believe you love something if you keep trying to kill it.
7. Check out how you speak to yourself and about yourself. When you catch yourself bitching about how you look, remember – that’s YOUR body you’re slagging off. Would you talk that way to a friend?
8. Remember that your size/shape DOES NOT determine how happy or successful you are or will become. IT IS JUST NOT THAT IMPORTANT.
9. If your self-loathing feels insurmountable. Get help. You don’t have to tackle this on your own. A good therapist will help, as will the food fellowships such as Overeaters Anonymous and Anorexics and Bulimics Anonymous.
10. Feed your body nutritious and tasty fuel. Treat it to warm baths and delicious oils and lotions. Stretch and exercise your muscles. Get enough sleep. Treat your body like the precious gift it is.

Please be nice to your body. It’s the only one you have, and without it you’d have nowhere to live.