With swimsuit season fast approaching, magazines are becoming littered with the hottest tips to get ready for the warm weather. We’ve all seen the headlines and blurbs drawing us in with information on how to exchange your six pack of beer for six pack abs, and about the ten minute workout for a bikini butt, but I figured I would share my personal best advice for a babelicious bathing suit body:
Put on a bathing suit.
Wham bam turkey and ham, you’ve done it! You’ve got a bathing suit body!
By this I mean, any body is a good bathing suit body and you should not feel any pressure to change your physical appearance just because the weather is changing and magazines in the Target checkout line are telling you to. Swimsuit season, and summer in general, comes along with a heavy dose of anxiety surrounding body image. The concept of having to wear shorts used to send my heart racing, because my thighs never looked like the slender and tan legs that dominated media around me. Sometimes, it still does.
Working towards loving your body is a journey, a process that takes a lot of time and is different for everyone. I am on a path of working to love the body that I have currently. Most days, I feel comfortable showing the cellulite on my legs or having my back rolls visible, but like I said earlier, I still have off days. It is so easy to fall into the rabbit hole of longing for the “ideal” body, Cosmo cover models glaring while you tumble down. Yet there’s always a way out of wonderland: to remind yourself that those bodies are no greater than the one you have right now.
Now I’m not saying don’t workout or change your body. I feel as though the body positivity movement can sometimes promote the idea that changing your body is against the movement. It is not easy for everyone to put on a bathing suit and feel ready to go out or love themselves at the place that they are currently. It would be rocking if it was that simple, but it is not. If regular exercise, eating paleo, or losing five pounds makes you feel good, then do it. Your body is yours. You get to decide what to do with it. As long as you are not hurting anyone, especially yourself, then go for it!
What you do with your body to get ready for this summer is your choice. However, I think we all can agree that the best summer body is the one that has a popsicle in it.
