By Fitness Editor Paula Jager, CSCS
Incredibly sad but true.
Ninety percent of American teenage girls are not happy with their body image and feel pressured to change it. They are more obsessed than ever with losing weight and are convinced that being thin is the key to happiness and popularity. Many of them either starve themselves, go vegan, or refuse to eat in order to be thinner which threatens not only their health but their ability to have children in future years.
It’s not only teen girls that feel this way. According to the National Eating Disorder Association, 80% of women are also dissatisfied with their self image and almost half of women are on a diet any given day. No wonder over 10 million females and 1 million males suffer from bulimia, anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders.
This obsession with female body image has grown steadily since the 1960’s and it’s now reaching epidemic proportions filtering down to young girls. Parents (mothers especially) appear to be partly responsible for passing on their own insecurities along with the media and social pressures.
Most of them have feelings of inadequacy which leads to low self esteem. They feel inferior, insecure and anxious. Some build a façade of capability but on the inside there is inner turmoil and struggle.
They often exercise compulsively in an attempt to lose weight and are obsessed with food (or lack thereof). They can’t really help the way they are–it’s how they function in life. They plod through marathon workouts avoiding anything that resembles a carb or fat, willing them to be stronger than the hunger that is taking over their body.
“Conventional Treatment” falls short of helping these people.
Surprise, surprise.
There is lots of sitting around on couches talking about “issues”, group therapies and high calorie unhealthy meals such as McDonalds, pizza and packaged and processed foods with very little physical activity.
How CrossFit Can Improve Body Image
While a strong support system is vital and talk therapy can be very beneficial, what needs to happen is a positive relationship with food and exercise. There are many modes of achieving this but physical activity and proper nutrition must be a part of it. I relate to personal experience best and am going to focus on CrossFit which has dramatically improved lives. Regardless of the method, it is about getting stronger from the inside out. Stronger and fitter to handle life–it’s ups and downs and whatever comes your way.
A feeling many people have is if you can get through a CrossFit WOD (workout of the day) you can do practically anything. Feeling that way is powerful and will carry over to other aspects of your life. The workouts force you to get out of your comfort zone; to stop the 2 — 6 hour workout madness. A conditioning workout can be done in 10-30 minutes and strength training the big lifts builds your body up not break it down. It promotes eating well and a lot in order to perform the workouts and your activities of daily living. It is not just something done inside a box (aka gym) but becomes a way of life. That way of life will not only make you physically stronger but stronger mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
CrossFit can be a form of recovery or salvation for many people.–you overcome the worst to become the best. While I have never had an eating disorder (other than eating too much at times) I can relate to being in a place in my life at one time or another that I didn’t want to be. If being honest most of us can also. This can bring you out of it.
It’s also finding proper balance and knowing when to rest. Rest days are necessary to get better and to recover not only from a workout or an eating disorder but any other affliction or addiction. But rest days must be learned. You can tell someone they need to rest but they have to see it for themselves.
The right nutrition is paramount in healing also; the right foods, multiple meals throughout the day, no measuring of exact amounts and listening to the body’s hunger/fullness cues as well as likes and dislikes.
What many women struggling with an eating disorder don’t realize is that you usually have to eat more to get in better shape. No extremes–not eating chocolate cake everyday but also realizing it is ok once in a while. Train hard; eat to fuel and when rest is needed take it.
I mentioned previously the importance of a strong support system. You are surrounded by “family” and friends in the CrossFit world–the community that is created becomes this support system. This brings out the honesty and integrity in people encouraging them to talk and share their fears and struggles while never being judged. It rechannels your mind in a positive way.
The combination of the proper exercise, nutrition and support will create confidence, improve self esteem and change the way women perceive themselves. As women develop this strength the world’s ideal of how a woman should look will begin to change–not waif like but healthy, strong and vibrant not only on the outside but on the inside.
Paula Jager CSCS and Level 1 CrossFit and CF Nutrition Certified is the owner of CrossFit Jaguar.
Her exercise and nutrition programs yield life changing results
I find this article very good! I was at an Eating Disorder outpatient care facility in Phoenix, AZ for 6 weeks in 2009. It was a great experience; the same philosophy was used there. Looking back through it all, I have to admit that … as much as I love her and have no ill feelings towards her whatsoever… My mother’s obsession with her weight as I grew up was highly influential in my own self-perception. She would tell us when she “felt fat” or “needs to lose weight” … when my 2 sisters and I always thought she looked nice! She was our mommy! My sister and I both had an eating disorder for part of high school and even into our early twenties. I say all this for maybe some of us newer moms to break the trend! My road to recovery has been amazing. I’m thankful to be Eating Disorder free for about 2 years. Think positive, and ESPECIALLY about yourself in front of your kids.
I think that human beings have an inbuilt sense of beauty. Beautiful things are pleasing to the eye – a sunset, a flower, a happy face etc. So far, so good. What constitutes beauty in women has changed over the centuries and differs from one culture to the next. Fat was beautiful and still is in some societies. Crippled feet were viewed as beautiful in China. Are these aberrations? Well, the thing with the feet accomplished one purpose: it immobilised women. As corsets did. (Which is why the feminists of the 60s had bra-burning fests, anyone remember?) Women also needed to be appealing and pretty in order to catch a husband until not so long ago – for most women this was the only way to survive and be supported. Today, women are liberated. On paper at least. And along comes the fashion and beauty industry and does their best to make women disappear again. The slimmer you are, the less space you take up, the less visible you are, the more ephemeral you are, the better – that seems to be the idea. Fat is a feminist issue.
Beauty is universal. From ancient sculpture to today, the full female figure reigns supreme. The amount of academic research showing people’s preferences for attractiveness in others – not just between the opposite sex – is overwhelming.
What you’re referencing is historically insignificant trends. Chinese foot binding to the anorexic Cosmo covers. These artifacts are not beauty, and most people agree that such things are not true beauty.
But that’s my question to the author of this article. What exactly is she combating in the 1960s and beyond female figure? Is it the feminist’s anti-feminity argument of bra burning? Is it the traditional view that sex is too strongly emphasized over femininity itself? We don’t know because it’s just thrown out there but not actually addressed.
Did not mean to confuse; what was meant by “This obsession with female body image has grown steadily since the 1960’s and it’s now reaching epidemic proportions filtering down to young girls” was that before the 60’s this problem was far less significant than it is today. I was merely “combatting” how perceptions of female beauty and attitudes has changed with the advent of waif thin role models such as Twiggy not glamourized in previous decades.
As far as “bra burning” goes have you ever worn one? Not all that comfortable–I minimize the useage unless the outfit ditctates it and primarily stick to sports bras which are far more comfortable. Am I a “feminist”? Depends on your definition of one; I am a woman first, I am equal in all ways save perhaps physical strength and demand to be treated that way. I also recognize the physiological difference between the genders and embrace and appreciate them.
As for “sex and feminity” they go hand in hand and a balance between them should be found based upon the goal.
I hope that clears up the confusion
I agree with the overall gist of the article, but . .
Did women pre-1955 not want to be pretty? Did they not go to great measures at times to look good? How far back would you have to go to find an advertisement for a corset? (Pretty far.) Make-up goes back to prehistoric times.
Bulimia and anorexia are bad. Industrial food is awful. A sedentary life is unhealthy. But what exactly has changed about the female image since the 1960s? I understand the argument about the overall loss of values and the subsequent rise of materialism that is attached to the idea of looking good at any cost. But you’re not championing a return to petticoats and hair-ribbons. You’re tanned, athletic, defined, so presumably you are simply exhorting women to a healthier lifestyle. Great. But where does the female image since the 1960s fit in? If there’s such an epidemic of girls trying to look like Bridgette Bardot, it’s a very large, and well kept secret.
I’m not trying to be contrary just for the sake of it, but I do feel that your case would be greatly strengthened if you were more clear on exactly what you think the issues are. Fast food? Bulimia? Vegan lifestyles? Barbie doll femininity? It really is hard to tell here.
I think the ultimate problem is how impressionable kids/teens are yet we throw them into a pressure cooker of other insecure kids/teens known as school for 6-8 hours a day. How can they be expected to listen to their inner voice when it comes to eating the healthy foods their body really craves, or sensing a full and satisfied stomach when they are inundated with incorrect information from society and their peers? We push busy, distracted lives onto our kids, sit them in a classroom all day and tell them what & how to think and then we expect them to govern themselves. Children need to be taught that maintaining weight is simple. We eat the foods that are nourishing to our bodies, we listen and know when we are full and we forget about the scale, about exercising strenuously. I’m all for exercise, but in enjoyment, not to burn calories or lose weight.
I think the best weapon for our young girls against eating disorders and bad body image isn’t putting more focus on their body but knowing Who created them and what He thinks of them: “People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” and “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.” Meditate on these young women and know that you are wonderfully made by the Creator of the Universe!!
I second this. If “the strength lies within,” then we must fill up with what gives us true strength.
Not sure who said this but a lot of truth to it. . . “the Lord helps those that help themselves”
along the same line, moderation, my daughter has had great success with myfitnesspal.com – although she only needed to lose a few pounds I can see how it naturally teaches you about calories and limits as you enter your food into a diary –