Looks and Weight Really Do Affect Happiness

My body did the most incredible thing. It nurtured, grew and brought new life into this world. Really, when you think about the physical changes a woman's body goes through when she's carrying a child, it's incredible that our bodies even go back to some semblance of it's former self.

I know what it's like to experience the miracle of being pregnant, but I also know the emotional difficulty of dealing with such drastic changes to a body. Those who've birthed a child are much harder on ourselves than we should be given what we've been through, but we're human.

This should come as no shock, but according to a study from Chapman University, your appearance and how much you weigh play really do play a major role in your overall life satisfaction.

Study researchers learned that for women, atisfaction with the way they look was the third strongest predictor of overall life satisfaction falling behind only their financial situation and their romantic partner.

For men, appearance was the second strongest predictor of life satisfaction falling only behind money.

Most of us, not just those who've gone through dramatic body changes due to pregnancy, have a long way to go before we're really happy with our bodies because only 24% of men and 20% of women felt "very or extremely satisfied" with their weight.

What's more is that if you're struggling with self image, you might want to cut back  on the amount of time that you spend on social media.

The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine took a survey of people between the ages of 18 and 32 found that the ones who spent the most amount of time on social media were twice as likely than those who don't spend as much time on social media to have eating and body issues.

[via Eureka Alert/ News Medical]