I apologise in advance, as this post may be somewhat controversial.
I see more and more the rise of "body positivity" - larger woman being "fat & Proud" and seemingly happy in their own body - rolls and all.
This image is definitely being pushed more and more and tells us we should love and accept our bodies for what they are and not change them.
I have conflicting thoughts on this.
I used to be so envious of those woman, in bikini's loving themselves. Why couldn’t I love my rolls and be happy overweight! Why did I have the urge to need to lose weight and never embrace what I saw in the mirror.
These ladies made me MORE unhappy with myself rather than happier!
But now I realise, I LOVE MYSELF MORE!
I may not embrace my curves, but I sure do love myself.
I LOVE myself so much that I know I am worth more than what I current am.
I LOVE myself so much I want to be around for as long as possible.
I LOVE myself so much that I strive to be the best I can be.
I LOVE myself so much that I am willing to put in the hard yards to be healthy. To watch what I eat and push myself to exercise.
And I LOVE my family so much that I want to be with them for as long as I can, to not cut my years short by "accepting" my body as it is and doing nothing to change it.
I do believe no one should be Fat Shamed, gosh, no one should be shamed or picked on for ANYTHING!
But I also don’t think being proud of being overweight sends a good message. We should definitely love ourselves warts and all. But shouldn’t we be striving to then make ourselves as good as we can be. As healthy as we can be.
I guess this is where I realise that to be this isn’t about weight, its about health. And there are definitely larger people out there who are hell of a lot fitter and healthier than some slim people (I know a very slim man who eats candy and drinks energy drinks likes they are going out of fashion - He may be slim but I’m confident his insides can’t be healthy!) But the majority of overweight people aren’t healthy - I sure as heck know I wasn’t at 128kgs!
But I still believe we shouldn’t be sending messages to youth that its ok to be overweight. Let’s teach them to love themselves as well as the importance of looking after their bodies!
This is something I have been thinking about for a while, and just wanted to put it "on paper".
I no longer feel that I do not love myself enough because I don’t embrace my curves, when the opposite is true! I DON’T EMBRACE MY CURVES BECAUSE I LOVE MYSELF!!
Be happy with who you are WHILE you strive to be the best you can be!
xox