Remember back in 2013 when I hosted a "Life With An Eating Disorder Series" and several brave women shared their stories? God is breaking down chains anytime we speak our hurts and hangups out-loud and bring them into the light.
So here is where you come in . . . a survey of sorts, if you're up for the challenge. Please feel free to email me personally with your answers if you are not comfortable sharing in the comment section of this post. This survey should only take a few minutes of your time.
Thank you so much!
BODY IMAGE SURVEY
(All questions can be framed in either past or present struggles.)
1. Have you struggled with feeling insecure about your body?
2. If yes, who or what made you feel that way?
3. Have body anxieties ever impacted your daily life?
4. If yes, please give some examples of how your life has been impacted. (One example could be that your body anxieties prevented you from attending a social event that you really wanted to attend.)
5. How has comparison played a role in how you view your body?
6. Has the expectation of how you think your body should look (vs. the natural body/shape that God actually gave you) played a role in your view of self?
7. If yes, please expand on how your expectations have played a role.
8. Has your body insecurities lead you to control your food intake in an unhealthy way?
9. If yes, please give some examples of how this control plays out in your diet. (Some examples could be "I measure everything I eat according to serving size before eating." Or "I don't allow myself to eat between meals even if hungry.)
10. Would you rather be slightly bigger than you are but be healthy, or slightly smaller than you are but not as healthy?
11. What positive coping skills have you learned, if any, to help combat these insecurities, comparison, and/or control as it relates to body image and food intake?
12. Things that make me feel better about my body are _________ (fill in the blank).
13. If you could give one tip to another woman for increasing her body image confidence and embracing the true beauty in who God created her to be, what would it be?
(Some questions were taken/adapted from this survey.)
1. Have you struggled with feeling insecure about your body?
ReplyDeleteYes, since my pre-teen years.
2. If yes, who or what made you feel that way?
I am not sure it was any one person more than another... Print media- 10 ways to "__________", boyfriends, playing the comparison game with friends, having the girls I did dance/gymnastics with tell me what was wrong with me, and my own negative self thoughts.
3. Have body anxieties ever impacted your daily life?
Yes, certainly when I was younger.
4. If yes, please give some examples of how your life has been impacted. (One example could be that your body anxieties prevented you from attending a social event that you really wanted to attend.)
I dropped off the swim team in high school due to thinking I was too big for the swimsuits (reality is that race suits are really tightly uncomfortable) and I was very happy to stop doing dance/gymnastics because of the ridicule I got for my height.
5. How has comparison played a role in how you view your body?
Never good enough. There was always something to work on in a consuming way.
6. Has the expectation of how you think your body should look (vs. the natural body/shape that God actually gave you) played a role in your view of self?
Some.
7. If yes, please expand on how your expectations have played a role.
In a positive way, it kept me active and motivated as I grew up to keep my body in shape. In a negative way, I was never happy with how my body looked.
8. Has your body insecurities lead you to control your food intake in an unhealthy way?
No, I just mentally beat myself up for whatever I ate and not working out "enough." But it never manifested in a controlling my food situation.
9. If yes, please give some examples of how this control plays out in your diet. (Some examples could be "I measure everything I eat according to serving size before eating." Or "I don't allow myself to eat between meals even if hungry.)
10. Would you rather be slightly bigger than you are but be healthy, or slightly smaller than you are but not as healthy?
My instinctual answer is smaller, always smaller. I am probably a healthy weight and body composition right now, so really I would just like to feel good, or even okay, about my body post babies. Instead it is all mental games and I never quite measure up to my internal standard.
11. What positive coping skills have you learned, if any, to help combat these insecurities, comparison, and/or control as it relates to body image and food intake?
Taking control of my thoughts, taking them captive. Ignoring the internal dialogue of criticism, vocalizing the thoughts to someone I can trust to not commiserate with me but to set me straight or writing them out... sometimes seeing how silly the actual thought is on paper helps me combat it in my mind.
12. Things that make me feel better about my body are _________ (fill in the blank).
Being active, moving, wearing clothes that fit at this stage instead of clothing that is too baggy/tight. Knowing that I've listened and responded to God's calling in my life, at this point, and that part of responding was sacrificing my body.
13. If you could give one tip to another woman for increasing her body image confidence and embracing the true beauty in who God created her to be, what would it be?
Get the thoughts, whatever they are, out of your mind. Talking to yourself doesn't count. Write them out or verbalize them with someone you trust to not feed it back to you. If you hold on to them, alone in your mind, you will continue to believe you are not enough.
1. Have you struggled with feeling insecure about your body? Yes, I have felt insecure sometimes. I don't know if I struggle with it long or hard, but I certainly have felt it!
ReplyDelete2. If yes, who or what made you feel that way? Media images, friends, a few relatives, and my postpartum clothes :)
3. Have body anxieties ever impacted your daily life? Only in that I began working out and counting calories to lose the "baby weight" last January.
4. If yes, please give some examples of how your life has been impacted. (One example could be that your body anxieties prevented you from attending a social event that you really wanted to attend.) No negative impacts in this sort of way.
5. How has comparison played a role in how you view your body? It's almost impossible not to compare myself to media images and friends at time! Sometimes it's positive and often it's wishing I had/was something I'm not.
6. Has the expectation of how you think your body should look (vs. the natural body/shape that God actually gave you) played a role in your view of self? Not in a core sense, but there have been times I've felt more frustrated/disappointed about it.
7. If yes, please expand on how your expectations have played a role.
8. Has your body insecurities lead you to control your food intake in an unhealthy way? No.
9. If yes, please give some examples of how this control plays out in your diet. (Some examples could be "I measure everything I eat according to serving size before eating." Or "I don't allow myself to eat between meals even if hungry.)
10. Would you rather be slightly bigger than you are but be healthy, or slightly smaller than you are but not as healthy? That's hard to answer in all honesty. I'd like to say bigger but healthy although for me, being smaller also keeps my blood pressure down in a healthy range all by itself (because I'm in a healthy weight range).
11. What positive coping skills have you learned, if any, to help combat these insecurities, comparison, and/or control as it relates to body image and food intake? I love some of the positive things on Pinterest. My favorite is "I'm not beautiful like you. I'm beautiful like me." Mostly just reminding myself of the important things, and that it'd be really stupid if we all looked exactly perfect/same!
12. Things that make me feel better about my body are _________ (fill in the blank). When I workout and feel strong and healthy, when I don't overeat or undereat, when I have time to focus on my hair, nails, makeup, fashion, etc. When I remember that it isn't my purpose, or anyone's, to "look perfect" in this world.
13. If you could give one tip to another woman for increasing her body image confidence and embracing the true beauty in who God created her to be, what would it be? That being depressed about your own body is actually damaging to OTHER women too, because we perpetuate this culture that how we look is important. It's not. Women are beautiful in all shapes and sizes, and guess what? We are beautiful healthy and unhealthy too! I know that's really, really hard for many people to understand and sometimes people seem annoyed when I say that. But God didn't say for us to focus on our selves - our looks or even our own health. Yes I understand we can't just be unhealthy to the point that it's selfish, but it's not necessary to be healthy to the point that it's selfish either. We aren't here for ourselves, we are here to serve and love others. I'd love for all women to just celebrate our beauty in WHATEVER we are, and say "F-You" to any messages that come our way otherwise. I'd love to see confidence in every woman, and certain knowledge that God loves her "imperfect" though we each are!
Just to clarify, by "damaging to other women" I mean that keeping in a broad sense the societal focus on women's bodies, especially their objectification, it damaging in ways we don't even realize. I'd like to see us women join together and shrug the world's focus OFF OF US and onto important things in the world, and focus on supporting and loving one another rather than focusing on bodies, sexiness, most-healthy-ness, and/or perfection.
ReplyDeleteHere you go sister! Just for you!
ReplyDelete1. Have you struggled with feeling insecure about your body? Um yes. My whole entire life.
2. If yes, who or what made you feel that way? I think I learned to feel that way through watching other people and also the way my mom talked about her own body. That was never her intention of course, but I think we pass insecurity along.
3. Have body anxieties ever impacted your daily life? Mostly when I was a teenager. I made foolish decisions about clothes, boys and purity all based on the fact that I didn't feel confident about myself.
4. If yes, please give some examples of how your life has been impacted. (One example could be that your body anxieties prevented you from attending a social event that you really wanted to attend.) Hm okay, I never EVER would walk into a pool so there's that. I would always wear a towel to the stairs, sit down, sneakily pull the towel off, and slip into the pool without ever standing up. All of course so that no one would see my butt! This is a very true story.
5. How has comparison played a role in how you view your body? Comparison mostly I think to what I saw in magazines and tv. Then, using that standard, I would decide who amongst me fell closer to the "mark" of beauty I saw portrayed in those places.
6. Has the expectation of how you think your body should look (vs. the natural body/shape that God actually gave you) played a role in your view of self? Yes, before I knew a relationship with God that is the biggest view I had of myself. After I gave my life to Christ and started studying the Bible I finally felt free to have my identity wrapped up in Him instead.
7. If yes, please expand on how your expectations have played a role. It was hard to see anything good in myself ever, because all I could see was all the "bad."
8. Has your body insecurities lead you to control your food intake in an unhealthy way? Unfortunately for a long stint as a teenager I would throw out my lunch, go all day without eating, and took dieting pills.
9. If yes, please give some examples of how this control plays out in your diet. (Some examples could be "I measure everything I eat according to serving size before eating." Or "I don't allow myself to eat between meals even if hungry.) I mostly got mad at myself for ever ever eating anything unhealthy. I beat myself up often and felt guilty all the time for not eating perfectly.
10. Would you rather be slightly bigger than you are but be healthy, or slightly smaller than you are but not as healthy? Healthy sister! Now at 33, five babies and a whole ton of faith walking later and I can honestly say I take joy, happiness, and an ice cream sundae over always looking to the nine. And with kiddos watching my every move it is important to me that they know I pick looking healthy over skinny.
11. What positive coping skills have you learned, if any, to help combat these insecurities, comparison, and/or control as it relates to body image and food intake? Matthew 11:28 "Come to me all who are wearied and burdened and I will give you rest." The first time I read those words they changed my life. Every time I look in the mirror I recite every single Bible verse I can think of that teaches that there is a whole ton more to my worth than the physical appearance of my body.
12. Things that make me feel better about my body are _________ (fill in the blank). Praying, my husband, positive self talk
13. If you could give one tip to another woman for increasing her body image confidence and embracing the true beauty in who God created her to be, what would it be? One tip...throw out the scale and live a month without one single mirror in your house. Give it a try and see what happens. Its amazing!