Читать книгу BOSH! Healthy Vegan - Henry Firth - Страница 33

How can you love others if you don’t first love yourself? Today’s society often doesn’t teach us to love ourselves, but rather to judge and compare ourselves with others. The psychological damage this does can be greater than anything the outside world presents us with.

Social media makes many of us feel like we aren’t good enough. Fat-shaming or body-shaming is rife in today’s world, and is a real form of emotional damage. We need to love ourselves and accept ourselves as we are right now.

Diet culture in general has us all comparing ourselves to those around us and wondering if they are better than us. Are we thin enough? Do we fit into those jeans? How do those squidgy bits look in the mirror?

It’s true that there are correlational links between obesity and life expectancy, but it is thought that some of these links could be due to the pressure society places on those who are overweight and the psychological harm that brings, rather than simply the amount of fat cells in a person’s body.

Body neutrality literally means a feeling of neutrality towards your body. A blasé perspective about how your body looks. If you’ve been worrying about those love handles, or other bits of your body which you’re not too keen on, then it’s time to let that go. Equally, if you’re very proud of your strong, round bum, or your big guns, then it’s time to let that go, too. For more on this topic, check out Laura Thomas’ awesome book Just Eat It.

In terms of your physical health, there are so many better things to focus on than your appearance, like overall strength and mobility (for more on this). So, if you do want to focus on exercise, then focus on specific goals, rather than how you look. Aim to be able to touch your toes or run briskly up the stairs, rather than stressing about how you look in a bikini.

Overly focusing on the way our bodies look can lead to all kinds of disordered eating, such as extreme fasting, anorexia, binge comfort eating, yo-yo dieting or bulimia.

Your body is great at telling you when it’s hungry and what nutrition it needs, so rather than focusing on what we ‘should’ or ‘shouldn’t’ be eating, try to learn to focus on what your body is telling you it wants to eat.

Now this takes practice, and we don’t mean ‘just eat all the sweets because you want to’. It’s unlikely that this is actually what your body is telling you it wants. Really think about your hunger levels and what your body is craving, while trying to overlook any addictive eating behaviours you may have learned.

Developing a more neutral attitude to the way your body looks will allow you to focus more on eating well and improving your overall health.