8 Habits of Women With Body Love

Body love is one of the most valuable and amazing goals you can set for yourself.

Instead of setting a certain goal weight, think about setting a goal of having body love.

When you have body love, you’re happy with what your body can do for you and how it looks.

You treat your body well with really positive thoughts and other healthy habits.

When you have a certain goal weight and you reach it, your thoughts about your body many not change all that much, especially if you’re in the habit of thinking negatively about it.

• Related: Why You Must Love Your Body First
• GET WEEKLY TIPS: Eating Habit and Weight Loss Tips

If you have a goal of having body love, you win in so many ways.

Career women can especially benefit from body love because they tend to hold high standards for themselves in many areas, oftentimes contributing to their career success.

Unfortunately because of this, they can be extra critical of their bodies.

As an eating habit coach for career women, I’m going to share with you 8 habits of women with body love, so you can start becoming the woman who loves her body, no matter what.

Women With Body Love Are Onto Their Brain

They realize that any negative body-talk is just their brain in the habit of being negative, and not the truth.

Thoughts are opinions or judgements.

Thoughts are not the truth. Let me repeat that, thoughts are not the truth.

Your mother-in-law’s thoughts are not the truth. Oprah’s thoughts are not the truth. Hitler’s thoughts were not the truth.

They are opinions based upon a perception of a circumstance. Even if you think 99.9% of people would agree with someone’s specific thought. It’s still an opinion and not a truth.

So, you might have a thought that your feet are too big. To someone else though, you have the most perfect feet.

Or, if you don’t like feet as an example, let’s use hair as an example.

Your friend just got her hair cut short. When you see her new cut, you have the thought, “wow, that haircut looks so chic on her!” Another friend might have the thought, “she looks like a 12 year-old with that haircut.”

Same haircut, two thoughts. Which is the truth?

Neither.

The same is true about your negative thoughts about your body. They’re all thoughts, so once you are aware of that, you take your thoughts with a grain of salt.

You’re onto your brain.

You get a little more control over it.

Women With Body Love Compliment Their Body

They remind themselves of at least one attribute or feature of their body they love.

This is where having that bit of control over your brain comes in.

Once you are aware that your thoughts are just thoughts, you can turn them into thoughts that serve you better.

This doesn’t mean telling yourself something you don’t believe one bit, but rather choosing a starting point by picking something you do believe.

It might look something like, “My legs are so strong.” Or, “I like how long my eyelashes are.” Or, it can even be, “I like that my body doesn’t give up on me even when I’m tired.”

Once you get in the habit of complimenting your body, your brain starts doing it more automatically.

It starts to even replace old negative thoughts with the positive ones.

Women With Body Love Feed Their Body Well

When you love something or someone, you want to take care of it, him, or her.

That means making sure it is healthy, getting the nourishment it needs, getting the calories it needs.

Women who feed their bodies with foods that are nutritious, are taking such good care of their body.

They realize that if they take good care of their body, it’ll show.

When you feed your body well, your skin looks better, your hair and nails look better, your stomach feels better, your muscles can repair themselves, and you have more energy.

• Related: Why I’m Able to Stay Strong and Lean Despite Getting Older
• GET WEEKLY TIPS: Eating Habit and Weight Loss Tips

Your brain even feels better knowing that that’s one less thing to worry about in the future.

(That’s a huge reason why I feed my body well. I don’t want to have to worry about preventable health issues and I want to be able to keep being active even into my 80s.)

Women With Body Love Move Their Body

They make sure to get in some physical activity every day, no matter what.

This can mean just a 10 minute walk during lunch.

Making a habit of doing even a small amount of exercise at the same time every day can work wonders on physical and mental health.

• Related: New Habits Made Simple With Habit Stacking

Women who make a habit of this realize that their bodies were meant to move, so they move them.

Just as a dog needs to go for a walk every day, people do too.

Career women can get so caught up in their “busy-ness” whether it’s their career or home life, that they forget about the basic need of moving their bodies.

Women With Body Love Get Enough Sleep (For Them)

They allow for at least the minimum amount of sleep required for them to feel good. They don’t short themselves night after night.

They know what amount of sleep is optimal for them to feel physically and mentally well, and they try to stick as close to that as possible on a daily basis.

Women with body love make a habit of going to bed by a certain time and sleeping until a certain time.

They find a sleep schedule that works, even if it takes some experimentation.

Women With Body Love Rest When They Need To

This goes hand in hand with the sleeping habit, but women with body love notice when their bodies need rest and allow for it.

They don’t keep working when they’re utterly exhausted.

They take a mental or physical break, even if just to go for a stroll around the office and take a few slow, deep breaths.

Allowing time for your body to rest can mean meditating for 5 minutes, reading an enjoyable book for 10 minutes, taking a 20 minute power-nap, or taking a full day off for self-care.

Taking that small amount of time to rest is a tiny investment with a really big return. Even a full day of self-care is small when you think about the impact it can have on you for the next two weeks.

I’m all about return on investment in your health. Invest now and you’ll reap the returns forever.

Women With Body Love Avoid Really Unhealthy (or Even Toxic) Substances

Women with body love certainly treat themselves to deliciousness, but they don’t habitually put unhealthy foods in their bodies, and certainly not really toxic substances like drugs.

They try to eat foods and drinks that don’t have any (or have very little) chemicals in them.

They take the moment to check the ingredient list on food labels and they limit the amount of alcohol they drink.

• Related: Best 5 Tips For a Healthier Happy Hour
• Related: How to Decrease Your Caffeine Habit
• Related: Break Your Fast Food Habit in 7 Simple Steps

Even if something is suggested to be healthy by the food label on the front, it’s not necessarily. So taking those extra few seconds to check, is well worth your time.

Your body will thank you, especially down the road when it has less health issues than someone your age who didn’t take the time to make the healthier choices.

Women With Body Love Don’t Base Their Happiness on What They Look Like

Your body changes as you age, which you know of course.

If you based your happiness on what you look like, your happiness would decline as you age.

Your happiness would wane as parts sag, skin gets wrinkly, and hair falls out at a faster rate.

No one wants their happiness to wane over the years, just because of the way life is supposed to move along this continuum.

Your body is supposed to change. Parts are supposed to sag and weight is supposed to be gained at certain periods of your life.

Wrinkles are supposed to become visible and hair is supposed to fall out.

It’s all part of getting to be a human in the first place.

And remember, the thoughts in your brain about how you look at just opinions. They’re judgements, not truth.

So start separating happiness from the judgements your brain is making.

Women with body love are happy even if their bodies don’t look the way they want them to.

Final Note

Part of reaching your health goals means thinking about the person you want to be, or the traits you want to have, and thinking about the habits of that person.

Building habits takes practice, and building habits effectively takes practice plus expert guidance from a habit coach.