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A positive body image is one that we should all strive for. You accept yourself, even though you may be overweight. You believe in yourself and love yourself while still striving for something better. When you have a positive body image, no time is spent obsessing about food, weight, calories, exercise, etc. You are proud of who you are and feel comfortable in your own body.
Living here in the North East, walking can be very challenging during the winter months. However during the past two years, in the warmer months, I’ve found walking is good for the mind, body and spirit. For me walking has been my exercise except for a few push ups and pullups.
Many people that suffer from binge eating disorder do not have positive body images. Instead, they have very distorted images of how they see themselves. Here are six ways to create a positive body image for yourself.
1. Remember a time in your life when you felt great about yourself.
Travel back in your life to a time when you were happy with your body. Maybe this was high school or college. Whatever the time, just close your eyes and remember how you felt. Let these good feelings radiate within you.
I felt my best after I returned from a very long deployment with the Army. Although I had not been exercising I had been eating less and constantly lifting and walking. I lost nearly 25 lbs and felt great when I got back to the US.
2. Write down what you like about yourself now.
Take out a piece of paper and write down everything that you like about yourself: your legs, your eyebrows, your smile, your hair, etc. The key here is to focus on the likes of yourself instead of the many dislikes. Start appreciating what you do like about yourself. This will make you feel better overall.
Start with the postives
3. Notice how you carry yourself when you walk.
Do you walk with your head down looking at the ground? Do you slump your shoulders? Perk up! Start walking and making eye contact with people. Hold your head up high. Walk with your shoulders held back.
4. Start walking
If you haven’t exercised in a while, start off slow. Go for a walk outside on a nice day. If you are used to exercising, keep it up and change up your routine so that you don’t get bored. When you exercise you begin to feel good about yourself, even if it is for 15 minutes. Start off slow and work your way up. Just do more than you’re doing now.
In a recent article by walking coach Michele Stanten regarding walking he said, “To make walking really work for your weight loss efforts, keep a few things in mind, says Stanten.
Do more than you’re doing now.
There’s no magic formula for how many steps, miles, or hours you have to walk to lose the amount of weight that you want. Starting out, the key is to do more than you’re doing now. “If you have a job where you’re on your feet all day, you have to do more than that,” Stanten says. “But if you have a sedentary desk job, a walk every evening after dinner may show real results.”
Push it.
The best way to melt pounds off is to challenge yourself with intervals—periods of faster walking interwoven with periods of slower walking. Research has found that interval walkers lose more weight than people who just go the same speed all the time. One study of people with type 2 diabetes found that interval walkers who alternated three minutes of fast walking with three minutes of average-speed walking not only helped their boost their fitness and control their blood sugar better than steady-state walkers, but their body composition changed, leaving them with less belly fat and body fat.
Increase your heart rate.
Although you don’t need to run, picking up your walking speed can burn more calories because it increases heart rate. But don’t worry, there’s no need to sprint—you can get a good workout in by walking at a moderately intense pace. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a moderately intense workout can be obtained by raising your heart rate to 50–70 percent of your maximum heart rate.
Of course, if you really want to change your body composition, you’ll want to add strength training to your life. Bonus: It helps you walk faster, Stanten says. Also remember that managing stress, sleep, and food well all contribute to weight loss, too.
6. Exercise with people you like
“You don’t have to walk an hour every day to lose weight at first (though it’s good to work up to it), but it’s important to get in the habit of walking every day,” Stanten said. Just make it part of your daily routine, something you do without even thinking about it, even if you’re only walking for 10 or 15 minutes on some days of the week.
Exercising or walking regularly with family, friends or co-works is a great way to catch up, blow off steam and talk through life challenges.
Start feeling good about yourself and learn to accept yourself. Little by little you will notice changes that have occurred. Learn to be on your side instead of always being against yourself. Put your shoulders back and quit thinking about what you’re not. Love the person you are and the person that you are becoming.
Since my weight loss over the last two years I’ve really started to enjoy my silhouette when I catch here in my favorite little walking town of Exeter, NH.
You can find reference to Michele Stanten’s comments in an article by Men’s Health.
