Lifestyle

Love Your Body – It’s The Only One You’ve Got

Body confidence is a sensitive issue. It’s also a widely written topic most people are familiar with and here’s another article written by another twenty-something girl, how original. I’m not exactly 100% body confident myself but the older I get the more confident I seem to get. The end of February is looming, Spring is upon us – not that you’d guess by the weather – and as we gear up to strip off those layers body confidence is more important than ever.

Everyday we are swamped with numerous celebs having fat days or skinny days, it’s no wonder as a nation we are so body critical. Surely being happy and healthy is more important than calorie counting and killing yourself in the gym? Or maybe that’s just me.

We all get fat days. The days where you feel everything in your wardrobe makes you look four dress sizes bigger than you actually are, when the wobbly bits are wobblier than usual and you can guarantee a spot the size of Mount Vesuvius will appear on the end of your nose right before an important event. Ain’t life a sneaky little b***h sometimes.

At the end of the day acceptance is key. We are stuck with the bodies we’ve been given so trying to change them into something you’re not is a losing battle. Yes, with dedicated workouts and a carefully chosen diet you can tone and shape the bits you’re less keen on, but instead of wanting to change it I feel we should learn to accept what we’ve got. You can probably guess that I’m no gym bunny – can’t stand the place – I like pasta and I refuse to feel guilty about ordering chocolate cake for dessert.

I’m lucky. I have stayed a size 8-10 despite no exercise since giving up daily dance classes three years ago and of course there are parts of my body that I’m not enamoured with. If only there was a quick fix – wouldn’t that be amazing – but there isn’t. I’m not going to look like Jennifer Lawrence or Penelope Cruz no matter how hard I try. I’m me and I’m okay with that. A combination of Irish, English and Scottish heritage means I am very pale and genes means I am on the shorter side of things. This often means when I go out I am the short, pasty one next to everyone else. It used to really bother me. I just don’t tan, never have done. I get that ‘healthy summer glow’ which was a phrase coined by pale people to justify their lack of tanning. I had some very bad fake tan experiences when I was younger – it wasn’t pretty and will not be repeated – then I grew up and it stopped bothering me. Confidence comes with age, and the older I get the happier I am with myself both inside and out.

I have friends who moan about how much weight they’ve put on and how they need to spend hours in the gym the next day to work off the pizza, and I don’t get it. I think they’re all gorgeous and they’re all different shapes and sizes. Little compliments go a long way to boosting someone’s self-confidence, I know if I receive one it puts me in a great mood for the rest of the day and if you dish them out you get them back. Maybe if people spent less time looking in the mirror and seeing the negatives and more time embracing the bits of their bodies they love, we’d all be much happier.

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