Every time I pick up or see a women’s magazine, there is one theme running through all the different publications: body image. By the way it is publicized in magazines, it would seem that negative body image is running rampant through America, infecting women across the country.

It is encouraging to see widely read magazines trying to address such an issue, but I can’t help but think they are fighting the issue from the wrong direction and with the wrong weapon. The magazines advocate accepting yourself as the first step to body image confidence, a step no one could repudiate as not essential or effective; however, I find this a little hard to do when the next page, or even facing page, has a scantily clad model displaying a photo-shopped and impossibly thin body.

Further advice revolves around exercise and eating right. After I just accepted my body? They may even recommend an exercise regimen a few pages down or that recipe you saw on previous pages. Nothing is wrong with this advice, except that with the objective of slimming down, they give no substantial motivation besides the end result, which can seem very distant when you are deciding between eating ice cream or a carrot.

Constantly staring into the future can disrupt the motivation of the present. As a person who has struggled with body image in the past, focusing so much on the physical effects of eating right and exercise causes nothing to ever be good enough, even positive changes are discounted as having taken place.

This effect is seen simply through the fact that collective knowledge includes negative body image and how to loose unwanted weight, but the magazines publish advice on it nonetheless because no one seems to succeed in the endeavor to change for aesthetic reasons.

The answer? Don’t focus on body image. Don’t think about how your body looks and question whether or not the magazine advertised methods are working. Don’t become healthy and active for body image; do it for the sake of your health. Yes, do accept yourself for who you are and what you look like, and love your body by giving it only the best nutrition and exercise simply because it is good for you. Don’t follow exercises you cannot adhere to; it doesn’t have to be a painful hour at the gym. Find some form of exercise you enjoy, be it running, a sport, or even skateboarding. I think when you focus on these, you’ll find, in time, your body will follow suit, naturally and long-lastingly.

The best path to effective life change is not because of body image, but for the sake of your body and health.