I want to ask you to take a bold swimsuit challenge with me.
It’s summer and it’s swimsuit season and I am sick of hearing myself talk smack about my own beautiful body every time I slip on that little black swimming suit. Sick of it. I’m sick of other people complaining about their bodies. I’m sick of hearing everyone enumerate all their many flaws.
I’m raising daughters and I want them to love their bodies. I get angry at the way media portrays physical “perfection” and insinuates that anything less than a photo-shopped super babe is unacceptable.
For almost 30 years, I’ve been complaining about my body’s flaws and it needs to stop if I want my girls to have a fighting chance at loving their own bodies. I frequently look back at old pictures of myself 2, 5, 10 years ago and think how great I looked and then remember that at the time I thought I was a tub of lard.
Yesterday Laylee was in a bathing suit and she said, “I like my body. I like being skinny.”
I looked her in the eyes and said, “I’m so glad. I love my body too. All the little wrinkles and parts show the journey I’ve been on in my life. I think my body is beautiful.” She seemed surprised because I’ve so often talked about the weight I want to lose and the improvements I want to make.
“Really?” she asked.
“Yeah. Really. I’m grateful for this body.”
She told me she loved my body too and I decided that if I really want her and Wanda to grow up loving who they are, then I’ve got to stop putting myself down and start trying to really feel the love for myself and be confident.
Please commit with me this summer to not flinch, cringe, make faces or put down your body verbally when wearing a swimsuit. Wear it with pride. Have fun in the water with your kids. Remember that the people who you have fun with are not the ones constantly ripping on themselves. The obviously fat people are the ones constantly tugging and covering up and talking about how fat they are. Don’t be that person. Get your confidence on.
Leave a comment if you’re ready to join me in the swimsuit revolution.
I love this! You’ve inspired me to stop complaining about my flaws and just celebrate the good things. Like how fast my teeth can chew a chocolate bar!! lol
Great post!!!
awesome! awesome! awesome! =)
I whole heartedly embrace this.
I am SO in. Thank you for this.
Totally down with that. May be tough after having a baby in the next week or so, but I like the idea of my life’s journey leaving its marks on me.
I love this! I will do it too in the hopes of loving my body more and giving my two daughters, 3 and 2, a fighting chance of loving their bodies too.
I am right there with you!! I hate the media.
Thanks for the inspiration. I have a three year old daughter and this has completely changed my perspective. I needed this!
over from mmb
I am in! We are moving to a place with a swimming pool and I am committing to take my kids swimming.
I am in too!!!
Besides nobody really likes listening to another person complain about how fat they are…. ;D
What an amazing desire. I’m pregnant and not really swimming this summer (too cheap to buy maternity suit), but I will definitely remember this for next summer.
This idea rocketh! Thanks for the motivation. 🙂
I’m in! Now I need a swimsuit so I can actually get in the water and play with my kids instead of supervising from the side.
I’m in. And I adore you.
I’m in and think you are amazing!
I’m totally in! I have three daughters and have been giving the whole body image issue a lot of thought lately. I like the thinking of my body as a celebration of the journey I’ve been on in life. Excellent idea, fabulous challenge! Let’s change the world!
I’m in! Though my suit does have the little skirt thing on it (not quite an old-lady style, more like a tennis skirt style) but I’ll be out there. AND I promise to wear shorts (better go shave…)
I’m in! I don’t have daughters yet, but my nieces need to hear it as well!
Amen! and Hooray!
Our bodies are miraculous.
If my baby is not going to worry about the folds of chub on his wrists, why should I worry about my chub?
I’m with you in spirit, but since I don’t have a maternity swimsuit, I won’t be partaking in swimming this summer!
You know, I think it is just important for boys to hear and see their Mom’s have a positive attitude about their bodies. It will help those boys be more respectful of their wives when they are older.
YES. I’ve always thought about supermodels walking down the stage, wearing something totally ridiculous and ugly, and they look fantastic. Why? Because they stare into the camera with a look that says, “I am hot. I am super-confident and I don’t care what you think about my bright orange lipstick” haha
THough I will have just had a baby, I’m in. You are my super hero!
AMEN! What a wonderful challenge to create!
I wholeheartedly add my name to this challenge. No one is going to stop the media from photoshoping every celebrity that appears in a magazine, or rich people from getting cosmetic surgeries, and so our girls will continue to turn with discouragement to eating disorders and unhealthy thinking to “fit in.” This challenge is the only way to make a change–to show our children that we reject the standards the world sets, and that we will not be (too) discontented with our own bodies just because someone set an unhealthy and completely unrealistic bar. Thanks for a daring idea.
I realized that not going to the pool and playing with my kids because I was fat just wasn’t OK.
Since then I’ve lost 20 pounds, and I hope it’s another 30 by next summer.
It’s all a journey though. 🙂
What a great idea. Where else can our daughters learn to be happy about their own bodies if not from us? I also love the idea of life leaving its mark on us. It makes wrinkles, stretch marks, and sags represent the achievement they are!
Absolutely. Putting my name down and saying YES to this challenge.
Sounds reasonable to me. My mother-in-law was just bellyaching at me for wearing my daughter’s Tinkerbell towel around my waist at the public pool.
You know, it isn’t all about us. You are right. We are raising daughters and want them to know that the body that God gave us is beautiful. It may not be perfect, but that is part of who we are and the story that He gave us.
I’m in.
My baby belly and I are in!
I’m so in! You are awesome!!!
I’m in! I haven’t read your blog in a long time, not sure why, then today for no apparent reason I decided to check in with you. I think this happened for a reason…I needed this message today and this summer. I am turning 40 in July and this comes at the PERFECT time. Thank you so much. Really.
LOVE this!! My daughters are going to be slammed with images telling them they need to look differently… what better way to combat that mentality than here at home. 🙂
Love this! Taking the challenge and reposting this to my blog, too. What a great way to start girls EARLY to learn to appreciate their bodies!
Me, too.
Great post and great challenge! I share an office with five other people and the others are all obsessed with weight. They talk about calories and diet pills and fatness all day long, and it was starting to give me a complex. So last week I requested an office change, because I don’t need to hear all that. My body is great just the way it is. All that negative talk starts messing with your mind after a while! I switch to the new office tomorrow and I can’t wait!
I join your challenge heart and soul. This summer I will wear the two-piece suit that my husband thinks is gorgeous. I’ll wear nice clothes and be proud of my body and all it can do. And I’ll remember what you said – no one will think you’re fat unless you act like you are, by tugging at your clothes and acting all self conscious. Thank you (sincerely) for the reminder!
Shout out!
AMEN! Whenever I feel bad about myself at the pool I just look around and suddenly feel much better. It’s always been important to me that my daughter not hear this kind of talk, which is helpful to my psyche as well.
Awesome! Count me in too!
I’m in! It’s going to be hard to break a habit after so many years, but I’m going to give it my best shot!
In my family we girls have also decided to stop criticizing our pictures. Now with all the digital cameras there are so many, many pictures taken and we’ve decided that we’re not going to put ourselves down for the way we look in a pictures anymore (even if they are b*tt ugly ;-))!!
I EARNED my stretch marks! Wanna see ’em? =)
I love this post! It was exactly what I needed to hear. The past couple of years have put my body through the mill, and I weigh more now and have more rolls than I did when I was nine months pregnant. Not very much in my wardrobe fits without making me look akin to a muffin or the Pillsbury dough boy. But I needed the reminder that Someone created me and considers me His masterpiece, and that I am fearfully and wonderfully made. I need to be grateful for a body at all, and learn to be content even while I’m working to get healthier. It’s going to take me awhile to love the stark white, skinny calves holding up mushy thighs and the tomato like middle, but then again, women way back when were considered knock-outs with pale skin and rolls everywhere. They were brave enough to pose naked for artists. So while I’m not going to suddenly become a nudist, I’ll keep your post in mind and be content with what I have and thank God for making me.
I’m in. I love this post. And I think this attitude will be great for all of our daughters. I eat healthy because I love my body, not because I loathe it!
You are on the right path:
My two boys aged 8 and 5 say I have the most beautiful bottom, because it is the wobbliest and makes them giggle – they can’t wobble theirs (not for lack of traying)! It is not only about positive body image for girls, but also for boys to learn what a real woman looks like!
I may be late to the game, but I’m in!
I just shared this on facebook. I love this post, as always 🙂
Beautiful post! We have to be role models of positive body image and good health all at once. I am in a business where health is at the top of the list. Constantly remind my daughter, it’s not about being skinny, it’s about being healthy and being able to enjoy life!!
Nice reminder. I”m in too. 🙂
I just went to the river today and shed the tshirt and shorts to reveal the swimsuit (appropriate but certainly not matronly) in my 40 lbs overweight body and was quite ok with it…glad to have read this afterwards and realized, I’m doing ok with this body that is now a bit more tan!!! 🙂
In! Thanks for the reminder. I’m pregnant, which means I should appreciate my body more than ever because it’s making magic. Easier said than done, but yeah.. .I’m in. 🙂
I’m in and spreading the challenge by reposting!
LOVE THIS WISDOM.
Wonderful post. That was a sweet moment with Laylee.
I have to say, this is exactly what I’ve been thinking lately. I don’t have any children, but I recently took a trip to Mexico and had a number of cousins there – and I realized, I had so much fun with them without once even noticing what my body looked like. Love the inspiration and it’s so true, the more self-confident you are, the more beautiful you appear.
Great post! I love it! As a man, this is dangerous grounds for me to post. I love my wife’s body but she doesn’t see it the same way I do and it kills me!
Love this post. Agree totally and appreciate the reminder. I want my daughter to love herself and her body, too. Trying to do a better job with this also. Great post!
I know this post is over a month old now but it has been on my mind all summer. Dang girl you walloped me flat on my hind-side with your words of wisdom. Thanks for the smack up the side of the noggin to help me realize that putting myself down in front of my girls helps perpetuate a cycle of low self-esteem in them. I’m already seeing it. Hopefully it’s not too late to start some self-Lovin’.