Today I am going to sit down and speak to you guys about something that I struggle with. That is body confidence. Over the years, my body has changed hell of a lot. I was always vastly underweight. Then I turned into a strong professional ballet dancer. Only for my dreams to be cut short with a broken ankle.
From that point, I gained weight. I feel like when I was a petite ballet dancer, that was my favourite body type on myself. Anything other than that and I felt miserable in my own skin. When I turned 25, realisation hit me. I had to make a change. From there, I not only worked on my body, I also worked on my mind. I understood that hell of a lot of it was mindset. A big change was certainly needed. These are the changes that I made.
Stopped idolising people I saw online.
In this day and age, people my age have grown up seeing the likes of the Kardashians. Not going to lie, I don’t really like them nor look up to them. The issue is the general idea behind the body type that woman aspire to, but we are looking up to woman that promote false ‘skinny teas’ and whose bodies have been created on a cosmetic surgery table. I got to a point where I needed to stop seeing a picture of an amazing transformation or a ‘pregnancy bounce back’ and I set my own idea. It is just a very sad truth that in this new digital age we are constantly thrown these false images and it has altered the way that we see ourselves and others.
Spoke to a coach about what was realistic.
I knew in my head what I wanted to look like, but I also wanted a realistic goal. I didn’t want to keep pushing towards an ideal that would never materialise. Actually, I spoke to one of the coaches at the gym I attend. I sat down with them, spoke them through what I was doing and if they had any advice. Not going to lie, it did kill me because I was so uncomfortable. It helped me so much though. They suggested some things, told me how long it could take and I needed to hear all of that. I do feel like it is hard to see a genuine fitness coach through all of the ‘instagram coaches’, but if you find one, run with them!
Started to enjoy food again.
Something that I really did struggle with for a long time when getting into fitness was depriving myself. I thought that in order to reach my goals, I had to have a bland diet. The truth is, that I enjoy food. It wasn’t until I was speaking to my nan that I had a bit of a realisation. That woman was in an abusive relationship, was in a coma, lost her children because of it. Believe me when I say that she has had a hard life. My nan said that the only thing she regrets through her life is living on a diet. So, now I am eating healthy, but having a bit of want I fancy. It is just all about moderation for me. Some will do extreme diets, but they have never worked for me.
Took progress pictures.
Throughout my whole period of wellbeing, I took process pictures. I feel like I was my own motivation and I loved that. I feel like without them, I would have struggled. Especially in them early weeks. I was trying so hard. Eating so well and exercising non-stop. The results in the early days were hard to notice, but the pictures helped. I wore the same thing, stood in the same place with the same stance. From that, I could see that my hard work was yielding some results. I needed to see that, and it encouraged me to keep going. Before I started on this journey, I would look to other ‘fitspo’ pictures, but they felt unachievable. With this being me, the changes were thrilling and amazing motivation. I will always look back at these and be proud.
Spoke openly about the hard time.
I am not going to sit here and say that this was easy for me. It certainly wasn’t. There were so many times when I struggled, and I wanted to give up. Much like anything that I do, I find talking helps. I would sit with my husband of an evening and bitch about how miserable I felt and that I wanted to give up. I was mortified and I didn’t know what to do. For me, opening up is always the best therapy. I would take a little time each week just to vent. As soon as it was off my chest, I felt so much better and ready to start again. Without that release, I really do think that I would have fallen at a much sooner hurdle. I am glad I stuck at it and got to this point.
I hope that you guys liked this blog post. By no means saying that these things will work for everybody out there. This just worked for me. It was hard work both physically and mentally to get here today. I by no means think that you need to be petite to look good. For me, I personally feel my best when I am a leaner size, but that is ok. As long as you are happy and healthy, you do you. I would love to hear from you guys. Honestly, I understand that weight and body image is such an important issue. In this day and age we have a certain body type always pushed down our throats and it is unacceptable, we need to set the beauty standards at a much more realistic body type!
