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Over the weekend, I caught a program on the Lifestyle Network called How to Look Good Naked. I loved the premise of the show---it's "the fashion series that shows you how to look fantastic with your clothes on or off no matter what your body shape---and all without a surgeon's scalpel in sight."

Each week, they take one woman who is incredibly insecure about her body, and in a span of four weeks, they get her to change not just the way she dresses, but the way she views herself. Think of it as the anti-Swan. It's all about coming to terms with your body, and lovin' and workin' what you've got. And if you think it's just a wardrobe makeover, think again--the last thing on the list is a nude photo shoot! By then, the ladies have to be comfortable in their own skin, instead of simply hiding behind clothes that play up their assets.

The episode I caught was, I think, the first one ever. The woman with body issues was named Susan, although she very well may have been called the Every Woman. She hated her hips and her thighs (something even the stick-thin women of the universe complain about), disappeared under baggy sweaters, and refused to undress in front of her husband. In came stylist Gok Wan, who slowly but surely built up Susan's confidence and self-love.

It started with a billboard somewhere in London, featuring an underwear-clad Susan (sans face). They asked people on the street to comment on Susan's body, and the responses were, "She's smaller than the average British woman," "She has such a tiny waist," "I love that she's very proportional." As Susan watched, she shook her head in disbelief, but an embarrassed---and perhaps, slightly flattered---smile crept onto her face. While she could find every little thing to loathe about her body, complete strangers were pointing out what was to love.

The next exercise: A group of women, all in their undies, stood in a lineup. Their hip measurements varied, with the smallest-hipped woman standing on the right, and the one with the biggest measurement standing on the left. Gok asked Susan to position herself where she thought she belonged in the lineup. Susan made a beeline for the leftmost part of the line. Surprise, surprise---she actually belonged in the middle. By placing herself at the end, she was essentially adding five inches to her hips! Her self-image was so distorted that she couldn't determine what she looked like, relative to all those other women in front of her.

This reminded me of another exercise I read about a few years ago, for a self-image workshop. The women were asked to lie on the floor and close their eyes. Then, they had to hold their hands apart in the air, to estimate how big their hips were. Once they opened their eyes, they saw that the image they had of their hips was far from their actual hips. Really, we can never be completely objective when it comes to ourselves, but who knew we were that far off?

After the reality check, Gok taught Susan how to dress for her shape. She had an hourglass figure, so 50s-style dresses (cinched at the waist and flared) worked best for her. Then they shopped for the right undies---a bra that supported her bosom, knickers that didn't dig into her bum. Later on, they prepared for her naked photo shoot, doing her hair and her makeup. She looked phenomenal---with and without her clothes on. And it was amazing because you could see how she had changed from the start of the show. Her mindset, her demeanor, her aura were all different. She seemed like a woman reborn.

At the end of the show, she got to see her naked self on a billboard, with all the people on the street---including her very happy husband---staring up at her fabulousness.

We all need a reality check every now and then. We could forever complain about our flabby tummies, small breasts, and thunder thighs---but these things don't make us ugly. They just make us different. Besides, there are bigger problems in the world. If a droopy bum is all you've got to complain about, then you've got a good life going for you.