Monday Motivation – You’re Pretty!

 

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to start off this week with a positive quote and having found this one below, I can’t stress enough how cute and accurate it is:

I am writing this post for the lovely Cuddle Fairy to include on this weeks linky:

But it really did get me thinking. I absolutely love what this quote stands for. As someone who is now full term and 9 months pregnant (come on baby, get out we want to meet you and see who wins the “I was right it’s a girl/boy debate”), I feel quite guilty to admit the following. Obviously my mind is full of baby related things; learning to breastfeed, how to cope with labour, the impending sleep deprivation but I have to admit it has been playing on my mind about getting my figure back when my baby arrives. Urgh even typing that I feel a bit ashamed of myself! Now it’s definitely not the top of my priority list, but I have thought about it and I think it’s likely to be something many pregnant women consider.

But the reasons for this aren’t positive in my opinion. I’ve had lots and lots of friends give birth in the last year and not once have I ever looked at any of them and wondered how they lost weight. They just all look gorgeous, glowing and are beautiful yummy mummy’s. It’s when I read the bloody Daily Mail sidebar of shame that these thoughts enter my head! Even when I read them I think to myself “why am I reading this” cause comparing yourself to celebrities is unrealistic and quite frankly stupid. It was the beautiful Abbey Clancey that got to me. I believe the photograph I saw was taken six weeks after she gave birth to her second child. I was going to put it within this post but I’ve decided not to cause that defeats the whole point I’m trying to make. Of course, Abbey looked beautiful, toned and like someone who hadn’t had one baby let alone two! All I could think was “how the hell has she done that”. Thankfully my brain soon kicked in and I realised how she’s done it; she is a wealthy lady who can pay for a personal trainer, a nutritionist and if necessary (although I doubt it as she is gorgeous) a bit of Photoshop! And good for her; it’s her job to look good, model clothes and generally be fabulous. Fortuantely she is a very likeable celebrity in my opinion so I can forgive her.

The point is, every mother has gone through a journey; getting pregnant, the epic 9 months, labour and of course those terrifying first few days with your new born! Worrying that you don’t look as good as another fellow yummy mummy just isn’t worth it!  You are beautiful; everyone has their own beauty. Everyone is their own kind of beautiful. Comparing yourself to others, especially those in the public eye that you admire and look up to isn’t healthy; it can be unrealistic and in your hormonal state (lets face it, all new mummy’s are hormonal), it can make you feel bad about yourself. Which is outrageous – this is a time when you should be beyond proud of yourself for being an amazing Mummy, getting through labour, and keeping a human alive! Drawing comparisons is something that you’re going to inevitably do anyway in terms of mothering skills and how well you’re coping compared to your fellow mummy friends; this is already overwhelming enough and something you must stop yourself doing. So to then add the comparisons of how you look to those in the public eye just increases the pressure you’re putting on yourself. So don’t do it! Admire yourself, be proud of yourself, acknowledge the compliments your other half and friends give you rather than dismissing them as nonsense, and remember that, most importantly, to your little baby, you are perfect. You are everything they love and need. You are bloody awesome – and that’s far more important than a flat stomach!!!