My little sister and best friend is leaving on a mission to Roseville, California this Wednesday. Yesterday I was shopping with her for her mission stuff and she told me that she is struggling with her body image and that she's really worried about gaining weight on her mission. I guess a girl in her ward told her that she'd gained a lot on hers.
My heart goes out to my sister and all other girls for that matter. It is just hard to be a girl now days. Seriously world, give us a break. Anyways I have had way too much experience with the whole hating your body thing and worrying obsessively about gaining weight. I have come leaps and bounds from where my relationship with my body use to be and dare I say I even love my body now!
Here was my advice to my sister and to any other girl out there who could benefit from it:
I don't necessarily love my body for the way it looks. Some days I really don't like the way my body looks. I still have bad body image days. But the way my body looks has become less important to me and is not connected with how I feel about myself as a person. I had to take the focus off of my body and put it on things that matter more. When you keep the focus on your body you're never going to feel good enough. There is always going to be something "imperfect" about your body. I told my sister she is going to be so consumed in the work of blessing lives and saving souls that her weight will become less important to her.
People now days act like losing weight is the #1 thing you could accomplish. Like it is the best thing you could be doing with your life. Is losing weight really the best you can do? Unless you are severely obese the answer is no. How important is it? Yes its important to be healthy, but are we really focused on health or weight? I can tell you all those fad diets, extreme exercise, and replacing meals with diet soda is not healthy. In the eternal scheme of things there is so many things that are more important. The two things that have really helped me overcome my Eating Disorder are
1. Gaining a testimony of the sanctity and importance of the body &2. Gaining a testimony of the importance of Womanhood and gods plan for Women
If you struggle with body image I challenge you to research these two topics; there are many talks given by general authorities you can find and a lot of books too. This will help you see yourself less through the world eyes and more through the Lord's eyes.
ADSENSE HERE