Hello everyone so today I thought I would do something that little bit different and share with you something that is quite personal to me and perhaps inspire at least one of you to get on board with my new life outlook / mantra / goal in life.
Recently I was clearing out my wardrobe looking for clothes to donate to my friends latest charity endeavour and I came across a very old size 6 dress from a couple of years ago, and in all honesty the size shocked me. Today I am a well rounded size 10 and cannot imagine fitting my entire body into something which quite frankly is the size of one of my thighs!
Unfortunately I have always battled with my weight, facing the stigmas I'm sure every teen girl faces in life I was always fighting to be skinnier, change my shape and tone my body which I've only now realized I shouldn't have had to. I wasted the entirety of my teen years battling with food and exercise to achieve some sort of twisted version of an 'ideal body' which does not exist, and let me tell you those were the unhappiest days of my life so far. I spent so much time focusing on how much I hated my shape, what I wanted to change about myself and who was better looking than me and today I really don't know what I was striving towards, I looked fine.
Before you all turn away, don't worry this is not another media rant, I personally believe we all have the inner strength to say no to any 'ideal' we have either in our heads, in magazines or even pressures from our peers, and today I have decided to say no.
All I want now is to be happy and healthy so this year I endeavour to take care of and love my body, eat well, exercise right and not be driven by the stigmas of weight, shape or trends. And I challenge all of you, size 2 to 24's and everything in between to learn to love your body the way it is before you waste away your years chasing an elusive dream of the 'perfect body'
As you can see this has been a slightly different pace to what I usually natter to you about but this is something that really matters to me personally and my eyes have been well and truly opened recently. As you know I love hearing from you, have you been changing your ways recently or have you previously struggled with body issues? Drop me a comment, come chat with me on Twitter or if you'd like to keep up to date with the latest Granite City posts follow me on Bloglovin
H.Elizabeth
It's sad because I'm guilty as much of anyone of body shaming and being obsessive... Because I've never been there I always think being thin equates to being happy. I don't want to be a stick, I just want to be comfortable in my skin.It's sad that being thin is an ideal so ingrained into us nowadays xx
ReplyDeletehttp://somethinglikenicola.blogspot.co.uk/
It's a huge challenge asking someone to love their body as is, but I mean if in the next few years I look back at pictures from now and say oh I looked good or fine, I don't want to live knowing I used to put myself down for nothing :) x
ReplyDeleteI'm with you hun, from a young age I struggled with eating disorders and feeling like I had to be thin. BUT It was never about image, only control. Now I am older and (some would say) wiser I've realised that I will never be perfect so I have decided to be perfectly happy with what I am at any given moment. xx
ReplyDelete