Acceptance is the Key

I just read an article that really hit home for me when it comes to body image and I just had to share some thoughts on it. 

When it comes to my body, I have good days and I have bad days. Some days I see little bits of progress and I am proud. I feel positive about where I am at and I can look in the mirror and smile despite the imperfections. Then I have days where I just feel....well...fat and ugly. I look in the mirror and get depressed at the amount of things I want to change and at how long I know it will take to change them. 

I know that this weight loss journey is just as much mental as it is physical. One of the things I would say to myself is that I have to learn how to "love my body" despite its imperfections. This was an overused statement that I would just kind of say without thinking about too much, but if I'm honest with myself I know that I never came anywhere near achieving it. 

Since having Abigail I've been aware of the fact that my self image is extremely important because she will see the way I look at myself and follow in my footsteps. I don't ever want her to base her worth off of her appearance, even if she were to become overweight. I want to teach her about her worth in a healthy way that doesn't put too much emphasis on looks, but that starts with me and the way she sees me look at myself. 

So I just read this article that totally blows the whole "learn to love your body" thing right out of the water. The main point of the article is that 'love' is an extreme emotion, just like 'hate.' So really it is unrealistic to expect yourself to 'love' your post-baby body. What you should do is simply learn to accept it. Accept it for what it is, nothing more and nothing less. 

This was written in response to the article that Kerri Washington wrote for Self magazine about her post partum body. When someone asked Washington, "Do you feel like you're back?" she responded with, "You know what? I try really hard not to use that language, because it’s not about going backward in life." 

We shouldn't want to go "back" to how it was before because that would mean we wouldn't have our precious babies that we went through so much for. It's not about being "back to our pre-pregnancy" self because that's not possible. This process of pregnancy, birth, and motherhood has changed us in so many ways and to go back would be a shame. 

So with this knowledge I take one more step in my journey towards accepting this body and not letting it take away from this precious time I have with my newborn. 

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THIS is the original article I was talking about. 

THIS is the article about Kerri Washington's interview.