If you want to improve your body, it turns out it’s actually more effective to love it and improve it.
From a motivation research perspective: people who love their bodies are more intrinsically motivated to work out and eat well. They workout and eat well consistently, and for their lifetime. When they have the life interruptions in their workout or food habits (that we all get from time to time) they have an easier time getting back to their program.
People who love their body workout and eat well because they love their body.
Trying to hate your body and improve it is making it much, much harder on yourself, and is much less effective. Hating your body is correlated with starting and stopping workouts and food programs. It might drive action in the short term, but it stops action in the long term.
If you struggle with loving your body, start a gratitude journal.
It turns out that trying to “be grateful” doesn’t cause a big change on your view of yourself. The day to day habit of writing down something you’re grateful for about your body is what can drive a major change in perspective.
Gratitude as a structured habit is your key.
One last thing: Keep in mind that loving/hating your body isn’t totally binary. Everyone has moments and feelings and daily fluctuations in how they feel about everything.
Just think that every time that you add more gratitude and are more loving to your body, you’re adding one little extra charge to your intrinsic motivation battery.
By Josh Hillis
author of Fat Loss Happens on Monday
regular contributor to Strength Matters Magazine
speaker at the Strength Matters Summits and Elite Fitness and Performance Summit
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