Often people have very unrealistic expectations of the type of body they would like to achieve.
They often refer to popular magazines to determine their ideal body. But they are ignorant to
the fact that many of the models are 23% underweight to begin with, have been made-up for hours,
camera tricks are used, and still, once the photos are developed, the pictures are cropped,
airbrushed and manipulated by computer to produce a very unrealistic, unhealthy,
so-called "perfect" image.
It's very important for you to examine your genetics and to understand that fat loss is dependent on your genetic breakdown. Approximately 40% of fatness is genetically determined. You can't change this! Here are some stats to help you understand this relationship.
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If one of your parents is obese, you are 2x more likely to be overfat. |
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If both of your parents are obese, you are 4x more likely to be overfat. |
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One study also makes this relationship very clear. Overfat identical twins were fed 1000 extra calories per day for 7 weeks. You would expect that each pair of twins should gain the exact same amount of weight but in fact, the weight gain ranged from 9.5 to 29.3 pounds. It's most interesting to note that although the actual range of weight gain between twins was very high, the twins in each pair gained exactly the same amount of weight! |
So, here's the message. You have a choice. If you are a pear shaped individual, you can either choose to be an in-shape pear shape or an out-of-shape fatter pear shape, but you'll most likely always be a pear shape! So examine your parents and your family to determine the types of expectations you can place upon yourself.
What is sad are the people who get caught in the "Geez, if I could just lose this extra 10 pounds, then I'd be happy" syndrome, yet when they do lose the weight, they're still not satisfied. If you believe that you'll be happy once you lose the weight, you'll never be skinny enough to be happy. It's a vicious cycle and it never ends unless we learn to love the body we have as it is right now, not tomorrow or next month or next year. It's ok to want to make health improvements but you can't hate and despise the state you're in now.
Making these lifestyle changes is about believing you deserve to be healthier! You deserve to take the time out to exercise and eat well. It's not about making the changes so you can look like someone else. If you make changes with this as you ultimate goal, you will not succeed and you'll be miserable for life! Take our word for it. We've seen it happen time and time again! Body hatred and dissatisfaction are hardly reserved for only the morbidly obese. In fact, many women who clearly have very little body fat to lose, are not happy with their body proportions.
Learning to Love Your Body
Complete the following steps to help improve your body image.
Step one: What's realistic for you?
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Is there a history of excess fat in your family? |
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Which parts of your body or your physical attributes are you satisfied with? |
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What is the lowest weight you have maintained as an adult for at least one year? |
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Based on your genetic predisposition, your age and the amount of time you want to spend exercising, what type of "ideal" physique is achievable for you? |
Step 2: I need a little help from my friends!!
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Surround yourself with positive, supportive people. Keep people around who are part of the solution not part of the problem. |
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Who are the people you would like to surround yourself with because you know they will be positive and supportive of your ambitions? |
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