Tuesday 6 November 2012

My Body

Like many women in this world I don’t think I have ever been 100% happy with my body. There is always something to change, to tone up or to loose a couple of pounds before that holiday, big night out or first date.


Recently as I’ve got older and had a child my body shape has changed and this has been a massive struggle for me to come to terms with. Over the past year or so I’ve been incredibly hard on myself and I know there are a lot of women out there in exactly the same position as myself.

I recently went on a lovely girls holiday with a group of friends and rather then looking forward to lazy days on the beach I worked myself up so much about my waistline and what I looked like, sometimes to the point of tears, that I dreaded going on the holiday and couldn’t relax the whole time I was there. This beating myself up about my body completely ruined the whole holiday for me.

Why has it become the way that only being a size 8 is acceptable or attractive?

Who is it we are trying to please and get ourselves so worked up about these sometimes unachievable weight goals? I work in an office with quote a few women and I can guarantee that nearly all of us are on some kind or calorie counting, weight watchers diet.

Years ago we celebrated women with curves, like Marylyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Diana Dors.

I love watching Mad Men, a show set in 1060’s New York, where again women with curves were seen as real women, not called fat and not plastered all over the newspapers or gossip sites because the had gained an extra couple of pounds.

Now a day we are faced with our “celebrities” in magazines like Heat, Closer, Daily Mail etc. with big massive red circles around photos of them on the beach with a tiny bit of cellulite, or quotes such as “she has a rounded tummy, she must be pregnant”

I for one stopped buying these magazines a while ago and it makes you wonder who writes these items? If its women writing about women then this is a great shame. How would these women feel if we went to their place of work or followed them on holiday and placed big massive red circles around their thighs, stomachs or bottoms?

I like my food, I enjoy cooking and I eat healthy balanced meals, I do a lot of walking and whenever I can I go on the odd bike ride around the park with my son. I don’t eat loads of junk food or excessive takeaways’ but my body shape has just changed and that is something I have had to come to terms with. I this is something I need to stop beating myself up about.

Its taken me a heck of a long time, its taken me walking out of shops with the hump because only that size 12 pencil skirt would now fit, its taken me buying a size 10 trouser to get them home and realise this size just doesn’t really fit round the waist anymore.

So I’ve had a massive clear out, the size 8 dresses and trousers have gone off to better homes via eBay, and have been replaced by clothes that suit my new shape in sizes that actually do up and I can breathe in! And I am slowly, starting to feel ok about this.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not turning into some size fanatic and I still have some serious down days about that little extra bit of tummy that turns up when I sit down or when I see photos of some amazing Victoria Secrets model with legs up to the sky and a washboard stomach. But then I realise that will never be me, unless I want to spend every waking hour in the gym and eat tiny stupid meals and then beat myself up because I had 1 Malteaser!

I’ve short little legs, and round hips and a post child tummy and Im going to learn to love these. Its hard but I just really hope we can start to work and stop this obsessing over size 0 and the need to be thin to look good and teach our children, boys and girls, that yes it is good to be healthy but healthy doesn’t necessarily equal stick think, and being stick thin wont bring you all the happiness in the world.

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