Love your body through all ages

WHILE AGE CHANGES A WOMAN’S BODY STRUCTURE, ACCEPTING THAT CHANGE SEEMS EASIER SAID THAN DONE. BUT THAT’S THE SUREST WAY OF STAYING HEALTHY/HAPPY INSIDE AND OUT

Recently, actress Priyanka Chopra spoke about how her body has changed with age and how she had to adapt to it mentally too. While several celebrities have addressed the same issue, almost all women face these challenges.

Female life stages are a complex mix of raging hormones. After every decade, the metabolic rate drops slightly, meaning our body naturally starts burning fewer calories. Post 40 years, there are also multiple hormonal changes as women enter various premenopause stages.

Simrun Chopra, a certified deep health coach, nutritionist and founder of ‘Nourish with Sim’, points out to how each stage in a woman’s life — from pre-conception, conception, pregnancy, delivery, postdelivery, and pre-menopause, menopause and post-menopause — have different nutritional requirements to accommodate the changes in hormones. “Unfortunately, today’s environment causes many women to try extremely low-calorie restrictive diets that can cause further hormonal issues. Stress, and more specifically long-term chronic stress, makes this even worse. Each of these has a direct impact on women’s hormones and in turn their energy levels, overall mental and physical health,” she warns.

ACCEPTANCE IS A MUST

Acceptance of one’s body and age is a must for mental wellness. The more love we give our body, the more comfortable we would be in it.

And that will radiate from the inside out.

A female body also goes through a lot of changes monthly. But when a woman hits her 30s she will discover her body slowing down. When she hits her 40s, menopausal symptoms set in. For those who have given birth, there is another set of changes in store.

According to Sahiba Rattan Sethi, counselling psychologist and founder of ‘Ummeed Healing’, though everybody goes through a different change, it is not a standardised change. “We need to accept that. Everybody will adapt differently to different hormonal changes, irregularity of periods, body pains, postpartum PTSD, body swelling, loosening of muscles, stretch marks and depletion of minerals. These are all biological facts of our body. We cannot escape them. But somehow, we want to stop all bodily changes at 25 years of age — and this comes from educated, literate people. We spend all our money, time and energy in stopping the biological clock in every way. Well, nature always wins. The sooner we accept that the better for all of us,” she says.

LOVE YOURSELF

A female body also goes through a lot of changes monthly. But when a woman hits her 30s she will discover her body slowing down. When she hits her 40s, menopausal symptoms set in. For those who have given birth, there is another set of changes in store.

Everybody goes through a different change. We need to accept that. Everybody will adapt differently to different hormonal changes. These are all biological facts of our body. We cannot escape them. But somehow, we want to stop all bodily changes at 25 years of age — and this comes from educated, literate people!

— SAHIBA RATTAN SETHI, counselling psychologist and founder of ‘Ummeed Healing’’

Take the case of 38-year-old Pallavi Priyadarshini, strategic media consultant in Bangalore, who put her work over health. “I am a person of a towering build and grew up detesting my legs. However, an injury I sustained a couple of years ago pushed me to practice mindfulness in my daily activities through self-love and meditation,” says Pallavi. “Now, I try diligently to be kind to myself, accept and appreciate my body and tune my mind to gracefully accept my ageing and growth. I realised that many of us are stuck with an image of our bodies when we were in our teens or early 20s, but it is unreasonable to expect it to be in top form always. It is like wanting a 5-year-old car to still function like a brand new one. Before long, my mindful, appreciation-filled workout routine began to reflect on my body as I accepted myself wholeheartedly and a healthy weight-loss was a natural consequence of this.”

The world of social media and movies show us a set image of how we must look. All our hopes, dreams and opportunities are tied to that. Society has reenforced this as well, and hence, the popularity of anti-ageing creams, lotions and magic potions and solutions, as well as quick-fix methods to achieve and retain youth.

Sethi admits that stressing over the above issues and trying hard to defy the ageing process is common. “I went through the cycle myself. After the birth of both my children, I went through a phase of complete insecure body image. Over that, society’s set norms on how you should look don’t help. In fact, I started getting advice on getting my ‘figure back’ from day one after my delivery. My body had produced another human being. I needed to thank it for keeping me healthy and alive after it. Yet, I started noticing the stretch marks and flab first,” she says.

Luckily for her, being a trained psychologist, Sethi was able to catch this pattern after her second pregnancy. She started working

“I try diligently to be kind to myself, gracefully accept my ageing and growth. I realised that many of us are stuck with an image of our bodies when we were in our teens or early 20s! It is unreasonable. It is like wanting a 5-year-old car to still function like a brand new one.”

—PALLAVI PRIYADARSHINI,

strategic media consultant

towards her own sanity faster while respecting her body and giving it time to heal.

PREGNANT PAUSE

As pointed out by Sethi, another natural change in the body happens during one’s pregnancy, with all the stages of the pregnancy having a large impact on a woman’s self-perception.

Post-delivery is a difficult time for most women as many claim to

“Women have to give equal importance to their psychological state of mind while managing the physical changes.

Support of a reliable gynaecologist and caring family plays a vital role in handholding the women through such difficult periods in life.”

—DR GAYATRI DESHPANDE, senior consultant, obstetrics and gynaecology, Nanavati Max Super Speciality Hospital

“Unfortunately, today’s environment causes many women to try extremely lowcalorie restrictive diets that can cause further hormonal issues. This has a direct impact on women’s hormones and in turn their energy levels, overall mental and physical health,”

—SIMRUN CHOPRA, nutritionist and founder

of Nourish with Sim

be unable to recognise the person they see in the mirror. With society constantly vocalising these changes in their negative aspects, there is a direct impact on a woman’s mental health. The field of epigenetics states that lifestyle plays a larger role than most people believe. Unfortunately, the media has associated self-worth with weight which is a completely wrong notion.

Dr Gayatri Deshpande, senior consultant, obstetrics and gynaecology, Nanavati Max Super Speciality Hospital, points out that a woman’s health is largely dependent on her psychological well-being. “Thus, they have to give equal importance to their psychological state of mind while managing the physical changes. Support of a reliable gynaecologist and caring family plays a vital role in handholding the women through such difficult periods in life,” she remarks.