5 ways to love your body
It's a common opinion that you join a gym to change the way your body looks. But we believe that taking time to exercise and eat healthy foods is a way of respecting your body and showing it the love it deserves.
If you look in the mirror and see nothing but flaws, we want to help you change that. Here are five ways to change your feelings towards yourself and how you look.
Every body is beautiful.
How to love your body image
Take a hard look in the mirror
For some, this can be a really tricky thing to do. The first thing that tends to happen when we look in the mirror is honing in on the parts we hate. Then our inner voice starts screaming about how terrible we look.
Instead, try to focus on aspects of your body that you love. Maybe even say these out loud. This will train your brain to focus on the positives rather than what you believe to be negatives.
Change your mantra to exercise
Exercise helps to make your body stronger, swifter and improve your mental wellbeing. Instead of saying to yourself:
“If I use the cross trainer, I will lose weight.”
“If I lift these weights, my arms will become toned.”
Swap these out for more positive sentences like:
“If I use the cross trainer, I will be faster”.
“If I lift these weights, my arms will be stronger”.
While there is nothing wrong with the first statements, the second set removes the negative connotations we assign to ourselves.
Understand your body
Sometimes you will smash a gym session and leave on an endorphin high, metaphorically high-fiving yourself.
Other times you will leave the gym feeling like your body wouldn’t go as hard or for as long as usual.
These days happen, and we must continue to think kindly about our bodies when they do. Instead of becoming frustrated, make a note of when this happens. Eventually, you will be able to read your body and know when it's a good time to exercise and when it's a good time to rest.
Not only will this help you appreciate your body more, but it will also make for super effective gym sessions where you leave feeling great about yourself.
Try a class that celebrates all the things your body can do
If you are used to coming to the gym and jumping into cardio and weight training before mentally checking the session off your to-do list and heading home, why not try a different approach to exercise?
We have a range of classes that are focused on having fun as well as making our bodies stronger. While targeted solo exercise is an excellent way to stay in shape, trying something a little different can help you celebrate the other things your body can do.
Why not try a class like:
Dancefit
Hoop Fitness
Vibe Power
Sh’Bam
Clubbercise
Zumba
Having more fun with your workout and taking things a little less seriously is a great way to start loving your body.
Step off the scales
We know, this sounds counter-productive. But if you weigh every day, you may find yourself more disappointed then encouraged.
Our weight fluctuates daily, and the scales don't always tell the real story. Small gains and losses from one day to the next are often not referring to fat loss. Instead, it could be the amount of water our body is retaining or even an increase in muscle that makes it look like you are putting lbs on.
Therefore, by weighing every day, you are merely going to tie yourself in knots while not getting a 100% accurate representation of how your body is reacting to exercise.
If you want to weigh yourself, we recommend doing it once a week, at the same time and wearing similar, if not identical, clothing.
Staying fit and healthy is a fantastic way to show your body the love and respect it deserves. But we should also be doing everything else we can to change our negative outlook and start to love our bodies for the genuinely fantastic machines they are.
