Body Image Can Be A Real Bitch

[Listen to an audio version of this blog HERE.]

Having a poor body image is the amalgamation of so many factors. Cultural, societal, or familial pressures; psychological distress; emotional hardships; everyday life. How physically active you are, how much you weigh, how much body fat you carry, how large or small you are compared to who you are around, how your clothes fit and the sizes of those clothes, what you ate and how you feel about what you ate. The media and the Photoshop inherent in the media. Diet talk and weight loss programs and…everything, really.

I have weighed the same weight for over four years without really trying all that hard. I try to eat when I’m hungry and stop when I’m full and mostly eat foods that I know are healthful. Sometimes I eat too many sweets or drink too much wine, feel like shit, and course-correct but for the most part, I have the diet bit dialed in. And even though I weigh the same and pretty much look the same, my perception of myself can swing from amazing to terrible in a matter of hours. Isn’t that fucked up? Because I’ve been in therapy so long, I’ve learned that when I focus too much on my body there is normally a larger, underlying issue. And, even though I’ve been in therapy a long time and worked pretty hard on cultivating a healthy body image, I still fall into moments of disliking my body for how it looks or what I…