Female fitness and body image | Street Soldiers
NEW YORK - Women sometimes feel like they are in the crossfire of mixed messages about how their bodies should look. Finding their way through image acceptance, surgical solutions, and the latest diet and exercise routines can be overwhelming but the women who are happy with how they look and feel all share some traits and habits in common.
Triple Grammy-winner Lizzo became the champion of girls and women everywhere with her body positivity movement that advocated for self-acceptance and self-love for big women often called fat in society. Now she's concerned it's being co-opted by small- and medium-sized women, and she's not happy about it. She says it was for big and fat women started by Black, brown, and queer women, who are still not benefitting from it.
When it comes to your self-image, comparisons can be especially detrimental to your mental health, says Dr. Jessy Warner-Cohen, a senior psychologist at Northwell Health.
"Trying to get back to a place at a different time in their life or to other people in their life, or looking at what they believe their friends are like or celebrities, and it creates an unrealistic standard for ourselves," Warner-Cohen says.
Christine Hronec started Gauge Girls Training to help women find healthy and realistic ways to eat and workout routines that get results and are sustainable. She says water is essential not just for hydration but also for burning fat. She says the real ingredient for success starts in the mind with consistency.
"It's absolutely everything because it doesn't matter how great you can stick to a plan for 7 days, 14 days, 21 days this is your life," Hronec says. "This is not a race, that's why it's so important to look at this as re-establishing your new normal."
The Hollywood trainer Jeanette Jenkins helps A-list celebrities and private clients achieve the best body of their lives and be at peace and pleased with how they look. She says those who succeed at this all possess certain characteristics in addition to physical training.
"A positive mindset so people who tend to love their bodies also usually have a positive mindset," Jenkins says. "And they understand that having that positive approach to everything they do, to their work, to their perspective in life, to how they view themself makes a huge difference."
No matter what stage of your life you're in, it's always better the healthier you are.
Find out more ways to create that healthier you on the next episode of Street Soldiers, Friday night right after the 10 O'Clock news on FOX 5 NY. Watch on your phone on the free FOX5NY app and fox5ny.com.