How's your body image? Take the quiz.

In her amazing book, DEALING WITH THE STUFF THAT MAKES LIFE TOUGH, our friend, Jill Zimmerman Rutledge, M.S.W., LCSW wrote some cool stuff about body image. For over 20 years Jill has been counseling adolescent girls and young women who have eating disorders and she knows what she's talking about.

Here is an excerpt from her book:

Some people define body image as how we think and feel about our bodies, but that's only part of it. Body image is also created by what we think and feel about ourselves, how we behave, who we choose for friends, and the culture we live in. If you feel bad about yourself, you probably feel bad about your body too. Or if all your friends are dieting, you may begin to think you need to lose weight too. You may dislike your body for lots of other reasons. For one thing, magazines and other media can have a negative impact on your body image. When we look at pictures of very thin models, many of us want to lose weight immediately so we can look like them. Feeling bad about our bodies interferes with our lives. Your poor body image may make you feel awkward and self-conscious with guys. As 16-year-old Tina put it, "No guy wants a fat girl and I'm fat. I know if I start liking a guy, I'll just get rejected so why bother?" You may feel so uncomfortable about your body that you go to the beach in long shorts and a baggy T-shirt, instead of a bathing suit. When you feel dissatisfied with your body, it's important to look at your life as a whole. What else could you be unhappy about. Do you have low self-esteem? Do you exercise moderately but regularly? (Moderate-not obsessive-exercise helps you develop positive feelings about6 your body.) Are you having problems with family or friends? Are you eating healthily or loading up on junk food? Poor body image feels like it has everything to do with your body but in fact, it also has to do with how you're coping with life.

It is important to be realistic about your body compared to your body image. Here is a quiz Jill posted in her book. Let us know how you did on it and remember to love yourself and get healthy.

Do you have poor body image? Take this short quiz to see:

1. How do you feel about how you look?
a. Very good
b. OK
c. Mixed feelings
d. Bad, ashamed

2. Are you happy with your current weight?
a. Very happy
b. Happy enough
c. Somewhat unhappy
d. Very unhappy

3. Have you ever felt too fat after reading an article that reveals the body weight of a model or actress?
a. Yes
b. No

4. If you gained five pounds, you'd
a. Be OK with that-five pounds isn't a big deal
b. Feel neutral-not good or bad
c. Feel somewhat unahppy
d. Feel very upset

5. When someone says you look nice, you think:
a. I'm looking good.
b. They don't have anything else to say.
c. They're trying to make me feel good.
d. They're lying-they really think I'm gross.

Scoring: For questions 1, 2, 4 and 5, give yourself 1 point or a, 2 points for b, 3 points for c, and 4 points for d. For question 3, give yourself 1 point for a and 2 points for b. If you have a total score of 5-9, you're on the road to a good body image. Keep it up! If you scored 10-15, you may have some body image issues to work out. If you scored more than 16, you may have a poor body image.

If you're spending time worrying about how you look instead of having fun, you'll want to read PICTURE PERFECT another cool book written by Jill S. Zimmerman Rutledge. It will definitely help you feel better about your body. You can purchase PICTURE PERFECT at HeyUGLY.org for $14.95.

Are You Judging Other Women's Bodies? Part 2

I remember one time in high school my psychology teacher asked the question: "Who do you think checks out girls more - guys or other girls?" Everyone responded with, "Guys!" It was a no-brainer. Why would the teacher ask a question with such an obvious answer? An older girl from the middle of the class, who I looked up to for saying what she thought, said, "Girls check out girls more. We need to size up the competition. We want to check each other out and compare ourselves to make sure we add up. We check out her clothes, how she wears them, and how she struts."

Insightful! And she was the only girl with enough courage to tell the truth.

When I was battling with my eating disorder of anorexia, bulimia, and overeating, I was just as judgmental about other girls' bodies as I was about my own. I remember going to the gym during my anorexic phase and checking out the most fit women there. I wanted to compete with them. I wanted to prove that I could be just as tiny and fit as they were.

Jump ahead eleven years. I'm no longer anorexic, bulimic, an overeater, or addicted to receiving approval and envy from other people. I'm not the most tiny and fit person at the gym. I just had a baby last year. I won't look perfect in a bathing suit this summer. But that's okay, because I'm not a perfectionist anymore.

That's not to say I don't take pride in how I look and that I don't take care of myself. I work out and I eat healthy. But there's a big difference between having a self-esteem that comes from how you look in a bikini and having a self-esteem that comes from living a healthy and balanced life, physically and mentally.

Constantly comparing yourself to other women isn't mentally healthy. It's also tough to stop. It becomes a game and your mind gets obsessed. And there will always be someone better looking and thinner, so you can't always win the game. Then you end up picking yourself apart because you aren't the best. It's exhausting judging yourself and others day after day.

Here's the good news. Once you stop judging others, won't be as critical of yourself either. When you start placing value on other attributes besides physical ones, you start loving others and yourself more. Even better, you stop worrying about how others may judge you. When you are judging others, you feel more self-conscious, but when you stop, you feel more confident. Worrying about how others judge you is also not healthy mentally. It comes a paranoia.

How can you start today to stop judging others and to develop a healthier body image? Next time a judgmental thought about another woman's body enters your mind, interject by asking yourself this question: "Is judging this woman going to make me feel better about myself?" If you're shallow you might answer yes. If you're honest with yourself, you'll answer no. Now, without focusing on weight, think of one sincere compliment you could give this woman. Does she have beautiful eyes? Do you like her shoes? Does she walk with confidence? Could she be someone's beloved wife?

The more you start to see people as living breathing humans instead of as objects, the more you will take it easy on yourself and stop expecting perfection. Your body image will improve and you will have more self-confidence, which always translates into beauty.

Get more tips and advice at http://www.stopovereatingtips.com. To save 15% on the book Stop Overeating Today!, use the special code HEALTHY using Google Checkout.

Are You Judging Other Women's Bodies? Part 1

Ok, so here is my confession. I am not perfect. Sometimes really judgmental thoughts come into my head. For example, ahem: The other while I was leaving Costco® I saw this really thin and beautiful Asian woman about my age. Into my head came the thought, “she is so beautiful and thin, I bet she is happier than me. She must have a pretty easy and blessed life.” Even though this thought entered my mind, I didn't believe it. Instead, I thought, "Wow, what a lie! How could you even look at someone and understand how happy they truly feel?"

While I was struggling with my eating disorder, I would have believed this thought. I would have entertained it and allowed more erroneous thoughts to come into my mind, such as: “If I were skinnier, I would be prettier and happier, too.” To replace the lie with something else in my head, I thought, “That isn’t true, skinny doesn’t equal happiness and I don’t need to believe that lie.” Thin doesn’t equal happy, it never did. Sure, it can give you a surge of pride and a sense of well-being, but you’ll never have genuine peace of mind because you’ll know you are skinny at the cost of being unhealthy and unbalanced emotionally, physically, and spiritually.

When I was anorexic and was at my lowest weight, I felt proud and happy, but it was a paranoid and shallow happiness, because I was constantly comparing my body to others. My self-worth was fragile and based on a number on the scale. I was paranoid that if my weight went up, that would mean I wasn’t worth as much anymore.

To stop believing untrue thoughts about your body and others' bodies is to stop fueling the eating disorder. If you don’t pay attention the thoughts, it’s like you don’t own them. You acknowledge they entered your mind but that you don’t have to hold onto them and make your mind a home for them. You can drop them, replace them with truthful uplifting thoughts, and then dwell on those.

Get more tips and advice at http://www.stopovereatingtips.com. To save 15% on the book Stop Overeating Today!, use the special code HEALTHY using Google Checkout.