You know, having poor body image starts when you’re young. Your family is really the only group of people that give you the positive reinforcement that you need to feel good about yourself. I’m not talking about having your ego inflated although I know we ALL knew that one kid who just KNEW they were THAT great…. and we all collectively rolled our eyes. In elementary school it was the girl who thought she looked like Jem (yeah, I’m that old) or the boy who thought he could beat all the teenage mutant ninja turtles if they ran into him on the playground.
COWABUNGA DUDE! We’re gonna TOTALLY have a RAD time!
Yet we never seem to count the “you’re the most beautiful girl in the world” and the “my son is the best kid a dad could ask for” as much because even at a young age we figure this is all obligatory. They’re your parents, they have to say this stuff. It’s the finger pointing, the name calling, and all around bullying about our appearance from our peers that weigh the heaviest when we make up our minds about our looks at the tender age of 7.
In middle school and high school, even when I walked those “hallowed” halls, young women especially felt the pressure to look a certain way in order to be counted pretty and/or popular. Models in magazines, video chicks on MTV (when they actually showed music videos), and celebrities were lifted up in the eye of the media as examples of what the world’s view of HAWT was. If you didn’t match up to that, you were ignored or worse, made the center of attention for all things negative. It’s funny how this trend not only has continued but seems to have become more intense in todays tech savvy world.
Savvy?
With the pressure to make sure your appearance is “on fleek” (on point/looks right), it doesn’t help that social climbing celebrities add to the insane ideals. Impressionable minds, both young and old go to the extremes to find some sort of middle ground with their appearance, and emulate these “perfect bodies”. Yet when their peers speak of their disapproval it drives them to emulate other celebrities, until they can find that everyone is happy with their appearance except them.
So here’s the bottom line. The best way to get the best body image, is to be happy with the body you have. That doesn’t mean that if you’re overweight/underweight that you just throw in the towel and merely accept the way you are. It means to find that healthy happy medium and work on it.
Be happy with who you are, and be the best version of yourself that you can be.
VOLT FITNESS 