Working Out For Your Health & Not Your Dream Body
Have you ever had the experience where you become so focused on physical exercise with the goal to get your “dream body” but then lose sight of all the other valuable benefits you can get from it? Even though our society is moving in the direction of having each person love themselves regardless of their size and there is decreased judgment over not having the perfect body, unfortunately, the pressure to have a societal “ideal” body still exists. The definition of an “ideal” body may vary from person to person, although essentially the focus is about how the body looks rather than how your body feels and functions. The motivation behind exercise becomes more about changing the look of your body rather than aiming to improve health or to feel better.
The Risk of Over-Focusing on Getting Your Dream Body:
-The pressure to attain your dream body can become overwhelming, mentally and emotionally all-consuming, and time-exhaustive.
-Comparison mindset becomes even more activated. This can creep up when we compare our own bodies with another person's, and the pressure to look like them builds. Comparison can also be activated when we compare our current body with the way our body used to look. While there are times when our body can bounce back to previous states, this is not always the case and it may result in pressure to reach a body size that is no longer realistic.
-One may resort to intense or drastic measures to attain their body ideal through steroids, food restriction, laxatives, or any other way to achieve the look they are going for. While these methods may get someone to their end goal, it is not without physical, relational, or psychological consequences.
-The goal to reach your dream body may result in a restriction in your life in more ways than one. To restrict means to put a limit on yourself or to deprive yourself of something. Restriction can manifest by limiting food choices, by limiting engagements in social events that may not be in line with reaching your fitness goals (whether it be food-related, the activity doesn’t involve enough movement, or the event is too time-consuming and would keep you away from the gym), or by mental restriction (e.g. “I ate a larger portion than planned, I will have to work out harder tomorrow”, “I can only stay at that event for 2 hours because I need enough time to go to the gym”, or “I’m feeling really guilty about that food choice I had at my friend's birthday party”). I will note that it is not necessarily a bad thing to restrict from certain foods or larger portions. Self-control is helpful so that we are consuming foods that nourish our minds and bodies and not overindulging in foods that will cause inflammation, head fog, low energy, sickness, etc. The emphasis here is the mental toll that a restriction mindset can lead too. A restriction mindset may result in someone feeling limited or unsatisfied in their life or it could even result in overindulging as a way to compensate for intense or prolonged restriction.
-What if you never reach your "dream body"?! Try as you might to get your dream body, but if for some reason it doesn’t happen, this can lead to discouragement or other painful emotions. Perhaps more drastic measures are then taken to reach the goal. Another scenario is that one reaches their body ideal but then experiences the pressure to maintain it.
Other Valuable Things To Focus On As You Exercise:
-Connecting with others. We are able to connect with others when we work out at a gym or in a group work-out class. Even more independent exercises like walking, going on runs, or hikes can be enjoyed with others.
-Feeling the sensation in your body after a hard workout.
-Enjoying the progress you see yourself making on a goal (e.g. observing yourself being able to lift heavier weights, seeing how you can run further miles, noticing how much faster you are with sprinting).
-Notice the health benefits you are experiencing as a result of your exercising (improved sleep, increased mobility, increased energy, clearer thinking, improved mood, etc.).
-Having fun finding various ways to exercise like through road or mountain biking, walking, running, rock climbing, swimming, weight lifting, kickboxing, barre,- Pilates, HITT, Zumba, etc.
While living in a world with so much emphasis on reaching your dream body, my hope is that we can free ourselves from this pressure and lean into the other many wonderful benefits of exercise. Hopefully by keeping our mind on these other benefits will help exercise become more fun and enjoyable!
-Katie K LMHC, MHP, SUDP