Helping Your Teen Develop a Healthy Body Image

Are you afraid of dealing with your teen’s body image issues?

If yes, this is understandable. With body image as one of the biggest preoccupations of young adults today, ensuring that your teen develops a healthy idea of himself or herself seems like a Herculean task. Is it not impossible to convince your teen not to idealize the bodies of the most famous young actors and actresses in Hollywood?

But this difficulty should not stop you from confronting this problem that especially involves many girls everywhere. With media bombarding teens with the best kind of body – only slim and skinny – your teenager might need all the help from you to correct any misconception of how he or she should look like. He or she should learn to love the right, healthy body fit for the build without being desperate to look like the thin girl on a magazine or the too-buffed up model on the billboard poster! Eating Disorders and Body Dysmorphic Disorders are serious and fatal diseases linked to a poor body image. Confidence and self-esteem are also linked to how much a person likes his or her physical appearance.

To help your teen develop a healthy sense of physique, try the following suggestions:

Stop complaining about food and weight. Do not be too verbal about the bad sort of food or the unflattering kind of size, because it may make your teen feel more insecure than he or she already is.

If your teen looks at you as someone very critical about weight issues, then he or she may not feel comfortable opening up about his or her views, and will prevent the open lines of communication. This negative atmosphere will not encourage your teen to discuss what she feels about the right kind of body, and will probably not speak up when you impose your view.

Compliment when your teen is involved in healthy activities. If basketball, running or swimming are the hobbies or sports of your teen, cheer on!

Doing so will ensure that your teen does not only have fun, but gets the right exercise as well without feeling that the sport is a task to be performed to achieve the ‘right body’. If these kinds of activities are not your son’s or daughter’s interest, do encourage and show full support.

Make the right food available in your home. By ensuring that healthy chow is available, your teen may have a less chance of developing an obsession of avoiding the available items in the fridge to lose weight.

Remember to always cook the right meals – try to combine old meaty favorites with vegetables or finish lunch with a fruit smoothie without sugar. When doing the groceries, prepare a list of healthy and delicious food to buy. Searching the internet will allow you to look for good recommendations, complete with the nutritional value of snacks.

Offer to shop with your teen and consult with a stylist at the department store. If your teen agrees to undergo this process (without your teen complaining!), it will help him or her feel more comfortable with his or her image. Your teen can pick out the right clothes to flatter the body type and be more attentive when it comes to selecting the right trends to follow.