Love Your Body Challenge – Day 20 6

Posted In Body Image

(Psssst! If you’re “late” to the challenge and just getting started, that’s OK too! Just go at your own pace! Start with this blog post and scroll to the bottom, and make sure you have what you need to complete the challenge and fill out the 10 questions you need to fill out before you get started. Then you can take it day by day at your own pace!)

Recap

Hi Everyone! I hope you’ve had a great weekend so far! I really appreciate you checking out today’s Love Your Body Challenge Post.

Yesterday’s reason to love your body was:

“Because it surprises me regularly.”

I talked about how fun and exciting it is when our body really pulls through for us when we least expect it. Maybe you finished something physically exerting that you weren’t sure you could finish like a race or a climb. Maybe you pulled yourself up over the chin-up bar when you didn’t know you could. Maybe you beat cancer or triumphed over a major medical issue.

Whatever you story is, when your body surprises you by doing something extraordinary, it deserves recognition and love. Here are some of your stories:

“I’ve been on an allergy elimination diet and reintroduction protocol since 3 February – my body surprised me at how well it handled eliminating dairy, grains, soy, legumes, sugar, alcohol, etc and has surprised me with its quick recovery after reactions to different groups. After just a few days of clean eating, and I feel better and stronger. My body is helping figure out how best to support and nourish it and that blows me away.” – Beth

“I love this reason and mantra today. I can relate in so many ways. My body has surprised me in so many different ways, but the one that jumps out at me when thinking of all the ways today is how it has reached the best health I’ve ever been in recently. Let me explain:

For so many years (after my eating disorder) I tried SO HARD to put on weight, to gain muscle, and reach the best health I could be in. I’d stress over food (constantly forcing myself to eat more and more), make sure I wasn’t over exercising, and stress about EVERYTHING just so I could gain weight.

Over the past few months I decided to just stop “trying” so hard and just live. Just live to be healthy, without the big goal of gaining weight. And you know what? I’m finally the heaviest I’ve ever been and feel absolutely amazing. I am finally the HEALTHY I have always wanted to be WITHOUT stressing about it. I am so surprised and don’t know how it happened, but that is just one of the many reasons my body has surprised me and I love it.” – Meg

Love it! Now onto Day 20!

Reason #20 To Love Your Body

20. Because it’s sexy.

You knew this one was coming right? We’ve talked about your body being beautiful, experiencing pleasure, and looking amazing in <insert your favorite outfit here>.

Now it’s time to appreciate that our bodies are incredibly sexy, whatever that means/looks like to you.

We will each have a different definition of sexy, whether it is feeling like our significant other is attracted to us, or it means that we finally feel comfortable in our own skin, or that we feel powerful and in control of our lives. There’s no right or wrong way answers here. Truly, feeling sexy comes in lots of forms.

So what if you don’t feel sexy? Is this something you can change?

I think that often times our negative body image, self-loathing, and shame that we feel gets in the way of us feeling sexy. We either can’t believe that anyone would find us sexy or we don’t believe we deserve to feel that way.

Just like with anything else we want to improve, practice is imperative. Just as you are in the middle of this challenge and spending time every day working on having more love for you body, you should also put time, effort, and practice into feeling sexy. This involves figuring out your own personal definition of sexy and spending time on activities that put you in that head space, and once you’re there, practice staying there.

This mantra and action step would be a good place to start.

Mantra: “My body feels sexiest when I <insert here>.”

Repeat this (to yourself or out loud) 10 times right now, 10 times during your action step, and 10 times before bed.

Action step: Take a few minutes to write down scenarios when you have felt really sexy, and try to find the common denominator. Was it alone time with your spouse? Was it a particular outfit you were wearing? Was it doing what you’re most passionate about? Figure out the common denominator and make plans to spend more time participating in activities with that common denominator.

That’s it for now. Have a great rest of your day and see you tomorrow!

FIND DAY 19 HERE