How you see yourself
By Anup Deb Nath

AS our culture becomes more and more West-oriented, our thinking, feelings, perceptions, and lifestyles all undergo a change. We do not become better or worse, just more confused. Where women in our mother or grandmother’s generation were content to be what they were, women today are just not happy.

Here the emphasis is more on women than on men because a doctor once noted that. "If men and women both look at themselves in a mirror, the man no matter how overweight or out of shape tends to look at himself and say ‘not bad’. While the woman on the other hand will see herself as fat, shapeless or not be happy with herself no matter how slim, or well proportioned she might be."

There are of course exceptions to every rule and the same applies to the theory that the doctor put forth. It is not true that every man is satisfied with his body and that every woman is dissatisfied with hers, but on the whole it is true that more women are dissatisfied with their bodies than men are.

Statistics show that more women undergo cosmetic surgery than men do which further adds to the fact that women are often not at all satisfied with what they see themselves as. Satisfaction apart, women on the whole tend to overestimate what they see in the mirror as their body size.

A study was carried out by J. Kevin Thompson, Associate Professor of Psychology, at the University of South Florida, Tampa, USA, on a group of women who were not out of proportion or in any way overweight. These women were shown a series of pictures with each depicting a figure larger than the one before.

The women were asked to select two pictures out of the series, one which showed what they thought fitted their body type or how people saw them, and the second picture of what they would ideally like to look like. Every participant selected a picture which was far heavier than her actual weight and size to represent how they saw themselves and felt others perceived them. The picture selected as their ideal size was on that was thinner than they were.

The findings indicate that many women look in the mirror at themselves and are not at all happy with what they see. They feel they are fat or have a big stomach or hips etc and then they go on a crash diet to try to bring their bodies to what they feel is the acceptable weight.

The common factor ruling most such women is the fact that they are ruled by the weighing scale and their own perception of themselves is clouded by the numbers flashed by the weighing scale. They have a magic number fitted in their minds of what they should weigh and if they do not attain this they are convinced that they are fat. These type of people are similar to anorexics but should not be confused with them. Most anorexics are ruled by the weighing scale as well and often have a negative image of their body and therefore eat less in an attempt to try to reach what they feel is their ideal body weight.

Here we are talking of people who eat and are not thin but are within a perfectly acceptable weight range. They often eat junk food and the guilt of eating what they know is not good, further reinforces the negative self image they carry of being fat. They also tend to be sporadic exercisers. These people typically tend to eat the wrong food and then feel that a burst of strenuous exercise will wash away all the excess calories that they gained.

The best way for women who are not at all happy with their bodies and feel that no matter how much they do they don’t seem to lose weight, is to stay on a steady track. Regular exercise and a healthy, nutritious diet which is suited to their body and lifestyle is what will ultimately keep them healthy and fit.

Eating junk food and exercising at a high intensity level once in a while is not the way to keeping fit. On an average it takes the body three months or so of regular exercise to really start showing and feeling the positive benefits or results. So don’t think that going for a walk for one week absolves you of all the eating sins you have committed for the past one month or more. To really feel good and look good, consistency is the keyword.