How to Cultivate Healthy Body Image AND Healthy Habits for the Whole Family

Episode 7. Hey everyone! Before we dive in to this great episode, did you hear yet about my Free 5-Day Body Respect Challenge?! It's all about how to dig DEEP on your values and tie them directly to your health behaviors. It brings together everything we talk about on this podcast and goes over the HOW of bringing it all together. Grab your spot today! Doors open Saturday Feb 27th! Do You Worry about "Messing Up" your Kid's Relationship with Food? Do you worry that your comments or your struggles with your weight or body image are somehow going to get transferred to your kids? Do you stress that you've already "messed up" your kid's relationship with food and it's beyond repair?Are you stressing about accommodating your children's picky eating and feel that you need to become a short-order cook to get everyone fed? Do you feel frustrated that you want or feel the need to make different meals for different family members due to different health concerns? If so, you are in the right place. Today's post is for you if you are a parent of any age kid, or have kids in your life you care about. Even if your kids are adults, I promise it isn't too late. Stay tuned for what you can do to prevent difficulties or remedy the situation whether your "kid" is 2, or 62. Body Image: Let's Take a Look at the Numbers Let's check out a few stats about body image to see where we are at: Males 25% of male children and adolescents were concerned about muscularity and leanness and expressed a desire for more toned and defined muscles (Calzo et al., 2015)For adult men in the US, 9% reported frequent body checking and 5% reported body image avoidance (Striegel-Moore et al., 2009). Females Of 1000 adult women in Switzerland (ages 30-74), 70% expressed a desire to be thinner (Allaz et al., 1998).50% of girls in the US are unhappy with their body; by 17 years, this number is nearly 80% (Kearney-Cooke et al., 2015). This is clearly a major issue. This isn't just on the individual families to change this. We need to change at a societal level in terms of how we think about and pursue health. However, as a family unit we have opportunities to improve how we communicate with our loved ones. If nothing else, this can set an example for the world at large. Am I Going to Say Something to Negatively Impact My Kid? Frankly the answer is probably. But don't despair. Even if you make a harmful comment, it's never to late to remedy. You are an imperfect human and you are never going to it get it right 100% of the time. I've worked with many adults and have heard countless stories about how comments from their parents have negatively influenced their relationship with food. I've heard stories from clients who are in their 60s and 70s tell of how their parents finally owned their mistakes from childhood or parenting them as an adult, and how incredibly helpful and meaningful that conversation was. Your Anxiety about Your Kiddos is a Major Concern Here Parental anxiety and worry is REAL. And it isn't going away. But we have to be aware of it and keep it in check, in many areas but particularly when it comes to their health. The absolute hardest thing do to as a parent is to watch your children be in pain and to struggle. And yet, we have to allow them space to do so so that they can learn and develop confidence. I know you want your kids to eat well and be as healthy as possible. You want to help them avoid significant weight gain, as you are well aware that being in a larger body in our society is harder. You know that if they gain weight, not only it is harder to lose it (particularly when it's more than 20-30 lbs or so), but that they are also much more likely to experience significant bias and may have a harder time in social relationships or finding a job due to their weight. Your Suggestions about "Health" Are Probably Making Things Worse You can have your anxiety,