Are you ready for bikini season??
Is your body ready for a bikini?
Let me ask you one qualifying question….
Do you have a body? The answer is obviously YES….
Then YES, you are ready for bikini season!!
We put so much pressure on ourselves during the spring to “get bikini ready.” Gyms and weight loss clinics use the bikini as the looming motivation to get us to sign up for workout plans and weight loss food. It is almost as well marketed as Valentines Day!
How long are we going to let this marketing ploy determine our bikini worth?
I live in the south and about ten minutes from the beach, so if I want to put a bikini on, then why should I let magazine covers and Instagram model photos tell me how I should look in one? I am an almost 40-year-old mom who fluctuates between a size 8-14 and am healthier than I have been in years! I do not have six pack abs and my French-Irish heritage shines in my ivory skin, so should I not be allowed to wear a bikini?
Who defines if my body is beach worthy? The only answer for this is “I DO.” I determine if I love my body enough to be proud of every inch of it. A beach body is everybody at the beach. At no point is a body not worthy of being at the beach. Let’s all stop with the before/after photos of our “bodies” to make them bikini worthy. By doing this, we are continuing this cycle of body unhappiness for our future generations. We put shame on each other by saying that person in the “before”‘ picture was not good enough.
Instead, let’s promote body love. Can we stop shaming ourselves and one another? If each of us takes pride in our body, stops trying to hide our insecurities behind clothing, and strips down to our favorite bikini (or swimsuit) and shouts with pride that “THIS IS MY BEACH BODY” then imagine the effect we could have.
Moms, your daughters are looking at you as the leader of their own body image. If they hear you in the dressing room saying “uggghhh, I should have worked out this winter so I could wear a bikini this summer” OR “I am sooo fat, there is no way I am going to the beach“…then what will they think of themselves when they look in the mirror?
Let’s encourage self-love and healthy relationships with our body and our food. When we eat to live and we enjoy the nutritious food that this earth gives us, and we enjoy the body that is our only body, well, that’s a beautiful thing!
For more on this topic, I highly recommend every woman should read Happy Weight: Unlocking Body Confidence Through Bioindividual Nutrition and Mindfulness
