While I understand where these women are coming from, it hurts my heart to hear it every time. Losing weight is not going to magically help you feel good about your body while having sex or looking at yourself naked in the mirror. These are issues that run MUCH DEEPER than just losing weight. And, it can take years of therapy and training your mind to banish such critical thoughts about your body.
I think all of us as women have struggled with body image issues to varying degrees in our lives. I am not immune to them, but overall I haven't felt like it's been a huge struggle in my life. Growing up, my mother would walk around the house naked. Of course, I thought nothing of it when I was quite young, but as I got older sometimes I was embarrassed and would mutter, "Put some clothes on Mom." Yet, in retrospect, I am so grateful to her for doing that. I distinctly remember one day, either in Jr. High or High School being in a checkout line in a grocery store and eyeing some magazine covers. Probably Cosmopolitan, and I saw a woman wearing hardly anything at all. Perfect perky boobs, no stretch marks, no cellulite... and you know what the first thing that popped into my mind was? "THAT'S NOT REAL."
I gauged it against my mother's body. My mother who had given birth to two children, who had stretch marks and cellulite and saggy boobs from nursing. Not to mention a c-section scar. I'm so grateful to her for teaching me in a subtle way what a real women's body looked like.
I also attribute my views on body image to my church and religion. Studying the scriptures in my teen years about how my body is a temple and how God wanted me to practice virtue and chastity and wait until I was married to have sex, made a huge impact on how I viewed my body. I knew that it was a gift and that I was to respect it and I expected others to respect it as well.
It wasn't until I gave birth to my first child that I grew to admire and appreciate my body fully. Wow. How incredible are our bodies to conceive and grow and give birth to another body!? And how miraculous that our breasts produce milk to nurture and give nutrients to another tiny human?! Let's celebrate the miraculous things our bodies can do, because they are incredible. Regardless if you've given birth or not.
And, sometimes your body will fail. You won't be able to conceive. You won't be able to carry a child to term. You may be diagnosed with a debilitating disease that will one day take your life. In those moments we can give thanks for what our body HAS done and know that though our bodies are indeed incredible, we are more than just a body.
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