6 ways to love your body

Fit & Training door thijs

Fit Girls have different reasons to start their fit journey and maintain their healthy lifestyle. During our fit journey we are challenged with changes. This could be in your lifestyle, work-out schedule, your mindset and very important your body. It shouldn’t matter if you are at the beginning of your fit journey or if you are riding this journey for years - you should always love your body and accept every beautiful part and shape of it. Here are 6 ways to love your body: 

#1 Focus on your health and feeling awesome
Stop obsessing for an ideal body. Instead focus on your health and how being healthy makes you feel, like awesome ;) and you will have more respect for yourself. This is a far more lasting motivator and will keep you on your fit journey road rather than focusing on how “slow” the process is going. Your focus will change and you will become a more positive thinker which always is good. Now you can face the different challenges in the health and work out department with a positive mindset.

#2 Show yourself the love that you show to others
We can become harsh and mean towards ourselves when we don’t reach our goals or believe we took bad decisions. This doesn’t just apply towards wanting to unlock your personal code to a fit and healthy lifestyle. But also in all the challenges you will have in your life. Well, it is absolutely not motivating when you treat yourself without any respect or the love your body and mind deserve. You can train yourself to change this negative mindset. Deanna Schooner - verified nutrition coach gives the following advice: When a negative thought about your yourself enters your head, take a deep breath, release it, and replace it with a happy thought or positive compliment. This could be anything like: YOU ROCK or YOU ARE AMAZING. You will become your personal motivation coach instead of a condemnatory judge.

#3 Always stay positive and grateful for what you already accomplished 
Us humans have the bad habit to focus on what we don’t have or what we haven’t accomplished (yet). This brings frustration and therefore you are more likely to give up on your fit journey or other challenges. If you learn to release negative thoughts and focus on the positive, like your happy moments or your accomplishments, how big or small they might be, you will live in a far more positive vibe. So stop comparing yourself with pictures of "perfect" bodies and wishing to be one of them. Find your inspiration of yourself, like photos of you at your best. And always remember the start of your fit journey or challenge.Because then you will notice the progress you've already made. Like in the beginning you didn’t even know what a burpee was, let alone do two or three in a row. And know you eat those damn burpees for breakfast and you rock them like ten at the time ;) That’s huge! :D

#4 Be happy with yourself, but take steps to change it if you’re not
If you are feeling like a sad couch potato or unhappy with your spirit… Take action. Cut out the junk food and the chocolate bars. Take your cute butt into the gym to exercise. Even if you don’t see immediate results or get energised right away, you’ll feel good that you’re doing something! What also helps is to find clothes that fit well and compliment YOUR BODY type. This also applies to your gym / sport outfit! ;) You will feel good about yourself. And taking care of your body with a nice (home) spa or new haircut is always a good boost for your mood. You will shine with cherries on top and will change the way you will about yourself. :D

#5 Change your inner dialogue
According to psychologists we teach others how to treat us. This fact could mean that if we give others the message that we are not worth being liked, loved or treated with respect, we won’t feel loved. And if we are not feeling loved, it’s more likely we don’t love ourselves. Therefore Carrie Myers Smith - Health & Exercise Expert explains that if you choose to believe that you are worth taking care of and that you have the right to be respected and treated with dignity - and act like it, you can change your inner dialogue. So think about it and see if you can catch yourself giving these "unkind" signals about ourselves towards others. Because when you are aware of this you can change it.

#6 Don’t stay passive towards people that criticize your body
Don’t let anyone else's opinion about you have an impact on your feelings. Swear to yourself that you will never feel bad because someone else tells you that you are too fat or too skinny. Be your own kind of beautiful and ignore people who don’t want to acknowledge and see that.

SO, please don’t lose your love for yourself by comparing your body to others. This will not make you happy and will give you the feeling it is never good enough. The tricky part of living a healthy work out life is that there will always be goals you want to achieve and end up losing the feeling of satisfaction. You should be careful that you are not striving for “perfection”. First of all it does not exist. And second of all, you could end up in a negative vibe, where women with “perfect” bodies become a major source of jealousy and envy. You could end up in a self-hate game which doesn’t benefit you in any way.

Challenging yourself is good, but also stay positive towards yourself. Complement your beautiful self and don’t forget that you are already awesome!! So I would like to leave you with the follow quote and I hope you will take good care of yourself ;)

“Don’t forget to fall in love with yourself first - and everything else falls in line”