Body Image

stiff kitten

happish..have been told many times im a good looking gal..
i think i have to work hard at keeping in shape because i think ive a slow metabolism...bit annoying....

face...:)
arms, legs...:)
stomach....:rolleyes:
boobs....:(
ass.....:)

Aisling(",)

I go through phases of hating parts of my body but my only main evil area is my stomach.

Im not fat but it just seems so bulbous and horrible and when i sit crouched down i get the hideous roll of fat under the line of my bra.
Most of the timei dont mind because overall my body isnt too bad but at the moment its really getting me down.I havent had any weight gain being in and around the same weight for the last three years i just keep convincing myself its getting bigger.Even having sex id be concious of how it looks and would try and suck it in as much as possible.

That being said i do eat everything i want without gaining weight and i think the extra flab may just be a result of 6th year where i had to cut back on the time i spent out and about even just walking.

I weigh myself about 2/3 times a day but i only do it out of habit.I dont go my my weight i go by how i feel when i look in the mirror.
Having a fat week this week but even with that id never go for an extremist diet.

so to sumarise im happy enough just annoyed by my belly this week.:P

dancingqueen

I've always been small (I'm a size 6) I'm also only a shortass (5 foot nothing). TBH, I'm well fed up of the comments like "sure you've a lovely figure" and "I wish I was as thin as you"

Do you? Do you wish you couldn't get clothes to fit you because you're too short and too thin? Or adult shoes because your feet are small? It goes both ways - I'd like a bit more, I'd like an arse to fit my jeans, I'd like to be able to buy sexy women's tracksuit pants, not kids ones that look **** I do have a decent cleavage considering my other child like features but still....

Meh.

LivingDeadGirl

My body image fluctuates on a daily basis, some days I think I look great, other days I think I'm the ugliest thing going.I used to be pretty fat so I reckon that that has a lot to do with it. Old habits(or perceptions) die hard I guess, even after losing 2 stone(9st 7lbs atm, lightest I was was 9st 1lb, that rocked). I'm an average height(5'5 and a half) and a broad build, which bugs the shit out of me, because no matter how thin I get, I'll always look 'big.' Not that I'm built like a tank or anything, but I'm a fair bit broader than your average girl. It just bothers me. I've come a long way though, I used to have a terrible self image, now I'd say it's just okay. Main problem area would be my stomach, whenever I'm thinking of what I'll wear to some event or whatever I think 'what weight am I right now? How big is my stomach right now?', I even have certain clothes that I'll only wear when I'm 9st 5lbs and under, bit sad eh? My ideal weight is 9st, with a flat stomach.
I'm also very aware of asymmetry/flaws on my face(and body too), how one side of my nose is broader than the other, that my eyes are too small and are slightly different from one another, one side of my face is wider than the other etc. I don't think anyone is completely aware of how much I feel like this, but I do have very high standards across the board in every aspect of my life, I expect the best from everyone and everything, but especially from myself.

gemmah

Constantly working on my body, doing fit classes non sto, looking even into a personal trainer at the moment! i want the bikini body :mad:

G86

I used to be pretty hung up on it when I was younger, but I'm not anymore really. I stopped eating crap a few years ago and hit the gym; and so long as I'm looking after myself and eating well then I'm fairly confident. I've lost a wee bit of confidence the last while because haven't been working out as much, was in my final year in college and flat out, but I know I'll be back on form soon once I get back at it - so I'm not letting it get me down

Although I do have my off days - you know when you look in the mirror and convince yourself you've gained 10 stone in one night!:o

Lia_lia

Deleted User wrote: »

I am so very unhappy with my body. I weigh myself daily. I am totally obsessed with how I look. I know I can look good when clothed, and I rarely leave the house for a night out not feeling a million dollars but once I'm out the insecurities start to hit. I think alot of it is down to the clothes I would like to wear, I carry weight mostly on my legs so I can't wear short skirts etc. I ALWAYS compare myself to other women, always. It's a horrible feeling.

When I was younger I was so super fit, I did Karate, Basketball, Athletics, Dancing, and of course I could eat what I liked, but I badly injured my knee in Karate and ended up never going back and that was the only sport that I did outside school so once I left school, I left behind all the other activities too. I thought I was fat when I was in school but when I look at the pictures - I was feckin fabulous!

I don't think i'll ever be happy with my looks and I think it's something that is always going to be an issue in my life

Edit; Just to add, noone that meets me would ever think I was so unhappy as I come across as this super confident person who's always happy! I'm sure I'm not the only one like this!

Don't mean to sound like a weirdo or anything but you are VERY pretty!

Lia_lia

Lia_lia wrote: »

Don't mean to sound like a weirdo or anything but you are VERY pretty!

eh WEIRDO :pac: :pac:

Ah thanks I don't think I'm ugly but I wouldn't say VERY pretty or anything like it! Jesus there are so many beautiful women out there I would say I'm fairly average. I wouldn't go anywhere without make up but I think it's more my body that I'm very unhappy with. I think that I would go under the knife tomorrow if I thought I'd wake up with the perfect bod but I would never touch my face as I'd be scared if it went wrong I'd end up worse off.

Also hate my teeth, have a big gap in between my front two teeth, wish my parents had gotten me braces when I was younger!!

Alicat

Ugh, stupid body image! I know I've put on about a stone in the last 1-2 years and it's very depressing when your favourite pair of jeans just won't fit anymore

Instead of panicking and crash-dieting, I'm trying to just look at what I'm eating and make an effort to choose the healthier option. I plan on getting into some regular exercise but i haven't started yet.

I hit a low the other day though when a customer asked me was I pregnant I was like "WTF, no, but thanks!" People can be so fupping insensitive and stupid sometimes.

pikachucheeks

I think what we can take from this so far is that regardless of your size, how "pretty" people think you are, we all have our insecurities and down days!

I guess it's just important to make the most of what you've got and embrace your body and your whole self as it is!

If someone came to you and asked you for one piece of advice on improving their body confidence, what would you say to them?

Wibbs

pikachucheeks wrote: »

I think what we can take from this so far is that regardless of your size, how "pretty" people think you are, we all have our insecurities and down days!

+1000. Very much so. I know a woman who was never big, naturally eats very healthily, who lived in the gym, very sporty, who actually had the "Perfect Bikini body" that most women would die for and most men would kill for. She still found fault. She actually found more fault than most women I've known. When she was sporting a flat stomach(Actually the flattest I've ever seen on a woman) and had what would be described as a four pack she still thought she was bloated, she still thought her bum, thighs etc were too big. So she went beyond that and the last time I saw her she looked more like a very skinny man. She's still very fit technically speaking, but I'd put money she's still not happy. This wasn't someone with any eating disorder either. But she defo has a body image thing going on. She's convinced she's the same size as she was a year ago and it's obvious to anyone she's not. Very sad.:(

I guess it's just important to make the most of what you've got and embrace your body and your whole self as it is!

+1

If someone came to you and asked you for one piece of advice on improving their body confidence, what would you say to them?

I'd tell them the chances are very high that if you got the bikini body, any confidence would be shortlived and the worries would just get more precise. That the confidence starts inside. That anyone you think is judging you is judging themselves too and that in ten years time you'll look back at how you are now and regret not seeing how beautiful a person you were, you'll regret not enjoying your life and youth and you'll regret worrying so much about the little things.

barbiegirl

I am of course on a Diet WW, who isn't. But honestly whilst I hate my tubby tummy, I'm happy enough with most other areas, and being naked doesn't bother me.
I grew up in a large extended family where the women were generally big, but confident in their dressing and everyone would regularly try on clothes in front of one another, so being and being seen in very little was never an issue. I'm very thankful for that.
I never want to be totally hung up on my body. Yes I want to get fit, yes I want to get back into a healthy weight category, and I will, but do I like me, yep I guess I do.
I think as you get older you get happier with who you are. There has to be some pay back for the wrinkles :-)

hunnymonster

As an Adult I've been every weight from 23 - 75 kgs and I've felt horrendously fat at every weight I've been. The logical woman in me, realises I've got a problem, the other half of me can't see beyond the fat in the mirror. There was a picture of me in the mods forum earlier in the week, I'm sure everyone else saw, another Boards AC jersey - great, all I saw was fat-girl-running :-( I'm getting married soon, and I can't face going dress shopping because I'm convinced I'll look hideous... so yep, I guess I have issues. The bit that gets me, is that I'm so structured in life and have achieved almost everything I've set out to (academically, athletically, socially,...) but for some reason, I can't get a handle on my body.

Fluorescence

I have a really crap body image tbh lol. My thighs and stomach really bother me on some days, but on others I think, "Oh yeah that doesn't look too bad today really." I just hate it though when I start feeling confident about myself and my mother turns around and whispers condescendingly, "You know you really should do something about that weight.... Are you really going to eat ALL of THAT?" :mad: I'm not thin by any means but I'm no heifer either (I'm size 12/14) but my mother's comments about my weight/fitness really drag me down.

On the other hand I quite like my face most of the time. Obviously I have my ugly days (my brother cannot understand the concept of ugly/fat days no matter how hard I try to explain in to him lol), when I look in the mirror and think, "OMG that's hidious!" For the most part though, I'm happy enough with my face (except one eye is bigger than the other... which looks kinda weird close up :P)

lemon_sherbert

I've always had a poor body image, and mainly because I've been very overweight for my whole life. It's been improving recently, and I would go days without thinking that I didn't like myself. I suppose what really bothers me is that I know, even were I to lose the weight, because of loose skin and a rather unfortunate birth-mark on my face, I'm never going to be a looker.

What I am trying to do however, is remind myself that looks aren't important, and that health is. I almost never notice how others look, pretty or not, unless I find them attractive, and that varies widely, yet I spend so much time obsessing about myself, when I could be doing better things.

It's always reasssuring to read threads like this, to see you're not alone, to realise that everyone is insecure about some aspect of themselves, yet it is extremely rare that I actually see someone and notice a fault.

CathyMoran

A relative has had skin problems so I have always known that people can be cruel...my dad was also a fashion designer and I did some modelling when I was younger - I found that world vacuous and unheathily obsessed with weight, they wanted me to be 7 stone which is a BMI of 17.9 for me and I told them where to go...

It did make me paranoid about my weight, not helped that I have diabetes (type 1) that a lot of people wrongly associate with obesity, then I got a cancer that is mainly linked to obesity (oesophageal cancer)...someone must be telling me something - thing is my BMI now is 20-21 and even at my fattest was never above 25. I still have fat days though and hate my ass (though my husband loves it).

I do appreciate my skin, especially with my relative...though now I have scars from live saving surgery...it was horrible when people stared. I dont go for heavy makeup though I dress up like a goth a lot as it makes me feel comfortable - I think that my boobs and legs are good so I tend to showcase them...

I never thought much of my hair until I lost it to chemo, it was a lot harder than I thought and I felt very ashamed to feel so vain about it - it is only hair and it did mean that the chemo was having some effect! I do look after it now - I cried recently when my hair was back to "before" though nothing else in my life is...I am different, I hope a lot nicer...life changes you...my husband gives me the biggest confidence boost.

That is me.

pikachucheeks

I love that people here are being so honest! And since you all have been, I guess I should be too!

I went to boarding school, shared a dorm with a few girls - so from that, I've learned just how paranoid women can be about their body, their weight and their appearance.
One girl used to go to bed with her face covered in sudocream and toothpaste, trying to get rid of teeny little pimples none of the rest of us even noticed! Another used to eat as little as possible during the week, then go home for the weekend and make herself sick, amongst other disfunctional things, and another girl would drink gallons of water to try and trick her body into thinking it was full.

As for me, I was always pretty shy in secondary school - and I remember one day one of the guys calling me "chubby" - although it was just one comment, it caused me a lot of pain.

It made me feel bad about myself, and it caused me to diet. I stopped eaten certain foods - refused to eat bread or carbs, skipped lunch regularly and was constantly paranoid about my appearance.

Looking back on that, I realise just how hard it is, being a young woman growing up in today's society - there's so much out there to make you feel unworthy, not good enough or even worthless.

Since then, I've found it quite hard to be proud of my body - I'm quite a skinny girl, my stomach's relatively flat, I have slim legs - but I have BIG boobs - came out of nowhere when I was 15 or so! Reading this, you might wonder what I'm complaining about ... !

But for me, I hate getting so much attention from guys because of them. I feel like people always notice me for the wrong reasons, or for shallow, superficial reasons and it makes me paranoid about myself.
It's hard to deal with people presuming you're easy, or judging you before they've spoken to you because of your appearance.


Now, I've just decided that the people out there who are like that, can think what they like about me - Because I can only be myself and I've accepted myself for who and what I am.

To anyone out there who's feeling bad about their body, I'd encourage you to look at yourself in a mirror, and realise that you're not perfect, but you are beautiful. Look at yourself in a positive way! If you love something about yourself, play it up! and forget about the flaws you think you have - don't try to change yourself! Something you hate about yourself might be the reason someone falls in love with you!

If anyone has the cheek to make you feel insecure about yourself, realise it's not you, it's them! All you can do is embrace yourself, love yourself for what you are, and do your best to take care of your body and respect it, as it is.

Hermione*

Dragan wrote: »

I have discovered that being happy with how i look has very little to do with how i actually look.

So, with that my plan is to return to training with the goal of simply being healthy and happy and to train for what i consider to be the best reason in the world to do anything, because i love it.

QFT. The former point I think is true for most people; the latter point I would like to be true for all.

g'em wrote: »

Actively making an effort to take care of your body will give you infinitely better confidence levels, knowing that you're giving the one and only body you have the best tlc it could wish for pays many, many, many dividends You'll look younger, your skin will be tauter, your general well-being will improve, you'll sleep better, you'll have more energy and be more focused.

In all honesty I look younger now than I did pre-exercising 5 years ago!!

I think this is the best way to feel happy with your body image.
And G'em, I can not believe you've only been training for five years! :eek: Wowsers!

I'm reasonably happy with my body image, and I would say I probably have been for most of my life. This might be easier for me in that I'm relatively tall and genetically designed to be slender. I don't think I'm by any means perfect-looking - I just like me.

That being said, I am actively trying to lose weight. I went through a period in my life where I was very depressed and unhappy, and as a result, I stopped looking after myself. My normally healthy eating habits slid by the way side, I dropped my yoga practice, I even thought my thirty minute walk home from work too much. I didn't notice this happening and paid no attention to it. I was too unhappy to care, frankly. Life went on like this for about a year, 18 months, until one day I realised that I had never been heavier in my life as I was then. This did not really help my depression, unsurprisingly. For a few months after that, I began paying attention to the weighing scales again (a new phenomenon for me) but I changed nothing in my lifestyle so the numbers continued to increase. I felt huge even though I knew I wasn't really. I was a size 12, sometimes a 14, and I'm 5' 8", so that wouldn't be overweight. It felt overweight though. Shortly before Christmas, I began doing Pilates. Then at Christmas, I decided that if I'd dealt with the thing which were making me emotionally unhappy, the next step was to deal with what was making me physically unhappy. I adopted my healthy eating habits of old, kept up the Pilates, started walking and made more time for me. I took up running some time later. Even though I haven't yet lost all the weight I'd like to, I feel happy with myself again because I know I'm looking after myself.

Once I'm healthy and happy and looking after myself, weight and numbers are immaterial to me. What other people think of me is also immaterial to me. I know I'm not naturally a curvy girl (I have no boobs or hips really, to speak of). It doesn't bother me. I like me, and that's what counts.

silvervixen84

I've always felt a bit insecure about my looks, my face mainly. i have a lazy eye, a nose that veers to one side, and teeth that aren't straight, but i'm dealing with it alot better now than i did when i was a teenager. I know that if i make an effort i can look decent. It still gets me down sometimes however when i go to clubs and see girls with perfect figures and pretty faces, but that's for me to deal with and when i'm not faced with those situations i'm ok.

I think that body image is a demon that most people (women AND men) face at some point, and it's very easy to say "everyone's beautiful in their own way" but it's up to the individual to realise their strong points (inner and outer) and build on these.

Curse beauty magazines, i mainly avoid them now!

Novella

Wow :O
I guess no one is completely happy with how they look then! Thing is, we probably all worry about what other people think of us but no one actually notices because they are too busy worrying about what we think of them! Does that even make sense?!!

I am a size 8 - 10 but I'm never happy with my body. I put on weight really easily so if I eat a few takeaways in a week or whatever it will be noticable I tend to have weeks where I eat terribly, loads of junk etc and then a few weeks where I try to eat as little as possible, maybe just an apple a day or something. I definitely have a really negative attitude towards food but hopefully, as I get older I'll get more comfortable in my own skin!

valery

silvervixen84 wrote: »

I've always felt a bit insecure about my looks, my face mainly. i have a lazy eye, a nose that veers to one side, and teeth that aren't straight, but i'm dealing with it alot better now than i did when i was a teenager. I know that if i make an effort i can look decent. It still gets me down sometimes however when i go to clubs and see girls with perfect figures and pretty faces, but that's for me to deal with and when i'm not faced with those situations i'm ok.

I think that body image is a demon that most people (women AND men) face at some point, and it's very easy to say "everyone's beautiful in their own way" but it's up to the individual to realise their strong points (inner and outer) and build on these.

Curse beauty magazines, i mainly avoid them now!

deffo with you on the magazine opinion. I recently turned 40 and can "pinch the inch" here and there . I can still lose the weight working out in my gym . So , size 14 and working to stay at that . seems like only yesterday i was a size10 , ah thats life.

markopantelic

ok im male and dont wanna boast but i mean im 17 and in perfect shape, just finished the leaving there and i go to the gym like every day, when i go on holiday i always see girls like just giving me a second look and thats as far back when i was 13 when i walk down the street without a t-shirt. i have a very ugly face though lol

panda100

I think like most women I have a rollercoaster relationship between me and my body/apperance. One day I think Im the ugliest thing in the world and the next I feel fabulous about how I look.

When I was growing up I was obsessed with magazines/pop stars/celebs and I think I got a skewed image of what I should look like from that. Even now I cant help but compare myself to everybody and anybody,usually seeing all the good parts in everyone else and seeing only the bad in me.

Its not very nice being tall and thin because people think that they can freely comment on your looks. Noone would ever say 'Your really short and fat' to someone so It dont undertand why they thing its ok to comment on how tall and skinny you are,it makes you feel like a freak!

Over the last few years though, as Ive grown older, I've definatly grown more confident in my own skin. In college I barely went out without my makeup on but now I've started to realise that we're just fed such a narrow definition of what beauty is and I've strated celebrating my pale,tall, lankiness!

rainbow kirby

Me and my body have a bit of a love/hate relationship going on. I'm significantly shorter, fatter and curvier than I'd like to be (5'6", size 14, big on top), and when I look in the mirror I still see the clinically-obese blob I was a year ago (96kg last July). I try not to weigh myself too often (once a week at most) because it's very easy for me to get obsessed with the numbers and I'd rather not be. I *am* more comfortable with my body now than I was before, but I'm still not exactly comfortable with it.

valery

rainbow kirby wrote: »

Me and my body have a bit of a love/hate relationship going on. I'm significantly shorter, fatter and curvier than I'd like to be (5'6", size 14, big on top), and when I look in the mirror I still see the clinically-obese blob I was a year ago (96kg last July). I try not to weigh myself too often (once a week at most) because it's very easy for me to get obsessed with the numbers and I'd rather not be. I *am* more comfortable with my body now than I was before, but I'm still not exactly comfortable with it.

I was in that weight area myself but then started to watch ( a little) what i ate and for me a big part of shedding the kilos is to exercise 3or 4 times a week . If you have dinner in the evenings I would go for an hours walk , makes a huge difference . never forget , you have it in you to look the way you want but not the way others want you to look. best of luck.

rainbow kirby

valery wrote: »

I was in that weight area myself but then started to watch ( a little) what i ate and for me a big part of shedding the kilos is to exercise 3or 4 times a week . If you have dinner in the evenings I would go for an hours walk , makes a huge difference . never forget , you have it in you to look the way you want but not the way others want you to look. best of luck.

I probably forgot to mention, but I run 4-5 times a week - doing a half-marathon in 2 weeks.

Wibbs

rainbow kirby wrote: »

I probably forgot to mention, but I run 4-5 times a week - doing a half-marathon in 2 weeks.

Off topic, but kudos!:eek:

Lockstep

Wouldn't mind asking a question in relation to this;

what's the average size of a young Irish woman (aged 18-22ish)?

I work in a clothes shop and we sell 8/10/12/14/16. Supposedly the average size range in Ireland.
I've heard size 16 is the average size for women overall but I'd imagine older women but be fuller figured.

I'd say a size 10 would be average in that age range?

GirlInterrupted

I posted a reply on the first page of this thread, but I deleted it when I saw the other replies. I was afraid I'd appear conceited.

I'm happy with myself, grateful I'm put together the way I am. I've a couple of scars on my back, but other than that there's nothing I'd change. Actually, I wouldn't even bother changing those.

Reading about the self-loathing that goes on with so many has left me feeling really sad. I can't imagine an existence where weighing yourself several times a day feels normal. I know how much I weigh when my doctor mentions it.

The real question in my mind is how does this happen? What sparks the worry that ends with obsession? How can it change? Mostly I wonder how anyone can feel lessened because their thighs are less than perfect. What you look like isn't who you are, and to be imperfect is to be human.