Author: August Clarke
Bikini season may be over, but that doesn’t mean we’re free from feeling like our bodies are under constant scrutiny. I don’t know about you, but I’ve definitely been feeling the pressure to make sure my body is looking it’s absolute best. The problem is that when you spend too much time looking at your stomach in the mirror or standing on a scale, you’re bound to find flaws in yourself that you probably didn’t even notice until you started looking too closely.
Showing off their body may be empowering for some people, but not everyone has the same level of body confidence. It can also be hard not to feel insecure once you start comparing your body to other people. If you find yourself feeling insecure about your body lately, the following are a couple of reminders to hopefully help boost your confidence.
Reminder #1: Everyone has bad days
Our bodies change a lot throughout the day, based off of when and what we’ve eaten and what’s happening internally. This may be surprising, but even professional athletes experience bloating. You might have abs today, and find that your body looks completely different tomorrow.
If you beat yourself up over every little change with your body, you’ll go crazy.”
Girls, we have a lot going on with our bodies! There are a whole lot of hormones pumping through our system all the time, and those hormones can literally cause changes in our bodies overnight. It’s not unusual to find that you are a few pounds lighter or heavier than you were the day before. If you are weighing yourself, don’t panic! No one gains five pounds of fat overnight, but hormones can cause us to temporarily retain a little more water and that means sometimes our bodies are going to look a little different.
The point is: stress, hormones, food intake, routine changes, and many other factors can contribute to your body looking different every day. If you are having a “bad” body day, take a deep breath. It happens to everyone (yes, even Gigi Hadid), and it doesn’t mean that you are overweight or unhealthy.
Reminder #2: A flat tummy just isn’t always realistic
Workout routines and ground-breaking new diet methods to attain a “flat stomach” seem to be plastered and advertised on websites and magazines everywhere lately. Aiming for a more active lifestyle isn’t a bad goal to have but it’s also important to remember that no matter how healthy or fit you are, your stomach isn’t going to be flat all the time. In fact, it may never be.
The reality is that bloating happens! Whether it’s because of hormones or because you’ve just eaten a big meal, it doesn’t matter. But it’s important to remember that the way our bodies look is inconsistent, and that you shouldn’t beat yourself up over not having rock hard abs or not looking as toned as the models you see on TV.
It’s also important to remember that everyone has different body types. If you are very curvy, it just doesn’t make sense to compare yourself to someone with a smaller frame.
What’s healthy for you is going to look different than what’s healthy for someone else.
At the end of the day, we have fat on our stomachs for a reason. We need to protect our internal organs and, depending on your body type, odds are your stomach will never be completely flat (and a lot of the time, that’s probably a good thing).
Reminder #3: Social media is not representative of the majority
Sometimes when you look at Instagram it can be hard not to feel like everyone has a supermodel body except for you. But that’s misleading because the fact of the matter is that only those who have a lot of confidence in their bodies are going to display them online.
Furthermore, those photos are also going to be taken at the most flattering angle in the most flattering lighting. Often, they’re also edited. That’s why it’s just not fair to compare yourself to the people posting pictures of themselves online.
Odds are the tiny percentage of people who hit the gene pool lottery going to be the only people who post pictures of themselves rocking thong bikinis at the beach. However, most people don’t actually have bodies fit for the runway, and that’s okay. No body type is superior to another.
Reminder #4: No one notices your flaws more than you
I can say with complete confidence that no one is analyzing your body more closely than you are. No matter how insecure you feel, remember that most likely no one else actually notices your stretch marks or the rolls you think are so obvious. And even if they do, they probably don’t care, because having flaws are normal, and everyone has insecurities about their own body too.
