I absolutely love the fact that society is slowly welcoming ‘normal and ‘realistic’ physiques. Every time I take a scroll through instagram, I know that I am bound to see a post with the hashtag #bodypositivity. I’m guilty of it too. I’ve posted many things, with a caption promoting my goal of loving the skin that I am in.

I’m genuine when I make those posts, or even when I’ve discussed myself and my journey through my emails or on my blog. The reason, though, that I titled this blog ‘Love the skin that you are in’…blah blah blah…is because I was faced with a situation the other day that made me realize that I don’t think I have been all that honest…and I’m sure I can’t be the only one.

What I mean is this…I have always said, I want to learn to love my body, regardless of what it looks like to others. I love learning about my body, sharing what I am eating, and more recently (if you follow me on social media), the diet hacks that I have been using while I have tried to slim down a bit. I’ve also recently started sharing a bit more of my training and fitness side, which is normally something I share on my personal instagram. The thing is, to an outsider, one may think that I have it all together, I listen to my body, listen to my cravings and share my journey along the way…great…what I don’t share are the bad days, the days that I hate myself, the days that I avoid looking in the mirror or would rather down a bottle of tabasco than stand on a scale hahaha, or the days where I don’t feel like baking sugar free protein cookies and reach for a box of chocolate covered digestive biscuits instead…

What I realized is that most people don’t share these moments, and quite honestly I think that we really should! I think it would be a hell of a lot more comforting to know that others are also messing up and that we aren’t alone in this journey…Anyone else agree?

Self love is huge, and I love the concept, but in reality, its a lot easier said than done, and if we are only sharing our highlight reels, then surely we are making the journey of ‘self love’ a difficult one? I think a lot of us love the idea of self love, being body positive, or sharing the clichéd quote: ‘If you want a bikini body, put a bikini on your body’ but in reality we aren’t really practicing what we preach. I know that, if I am going to be honest, I am guilty of this, and only since I have recognized it, have I been able to try and change it…and I think that the more people identify this, the more people will actually be able to be #bodypositive

So, how did I come to this realization?? Well, on Heritage day I was sent a message asking if I was available to help with a shoot THE NEXT DAY! My first thoughts were:

1) I have just been sick and haven’t trained properly for 10 days
2) I completely over indulged over the weekend
3) I am paler than a Canadian in the middle of winter
4) I needed to get my roots touched up a month ago but haven’t had the time
5) My nail appointment is only on Friday
6) I’ve spent most of this year in a calorie surplus, I am not ‘bikini ready’

I could go on for another 10 points but I’m going to stop there (I think for the sake of my sanity and boring you, that’s probably for the best hahaha) BUT you know what…I did it, without dieting, getting my hair, nails or tan done…why? Because I want to be a person that practices what she preaches! How can I share a post telling everyone else to love their body but then not agree to do a shoot because I don’t feel happy in mine?

I don’t want to be a hyprocrite…I want to be real…it’s the reason that I started my facebook page, it’s the reason that I post my clumsy stories on Instagram, hell… it’s the reason that I use my iPhone instead of a fancy camera to take pictures of what I’ve baked…I want to be real!!!

So, ultimately why I shared this little rant is this: Being body positive is great and loving your body at every stage of your journey should ultimately be the goal…BUT…in reality, this is damn hard, and it’s going to continue being damn difficult unless we show others that we mess up, that some days it feels like we are taking one step forward, and two steps back, and throughout this journey, we need to show that we have each others back…so instead of saying you are #bodypositive, rather say you are #learningtobebodypositive
Can we try do that together?

Also- the tights that I got to wear for the shoot that I did were actually incredible!!! The quality is honestly out of this world and they are super cost effective too (Custom don’t even know I’m sharing this so I wasn’t ask to say this…again, just being real with you all)…check out their websire: www.custom-apparel.co.za or follow them on instagram @custom_apparel_

As always, thank you for reading my rambles…All my love, and peanut butter…Jo xxx

 

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