Yes you got really close to what i’m looking for, mostly with “the belief that I am the body and I need to keep it beautiful…. As I say that, I’m reminded that the body w/o the mind is an inert thing and what I am is more like what is going on…”.
I created a “mantra” (kind of) that i keep repeating : whatever “I” am, this body is but a transient expression of such “I”.
However when i recite it i’m aware of what the Buddha said on the self, non-self, etc. Meaning that whatever is there and/or not there, the body is but a transient expression of it.