The 5 things body confidence challenge

Morning lovelies,

The other day I came across a post called the 5 day body confidence challenge, by Eilidh over on Mummyandmonkeys blog. After some time of feeling a bit negative about how she looks (God knows why, she is beaut), this yummy mummy decided to set herself a challenge, to look in the mirror and choose 5 things she likes about my face and body so that, in her own words “the next time I see myself and start to focus on the parts I’m not so keen on I need to remember instead the features that I like”.

As soon as I read this I thought what a great thing to do! Us women, especially mums, are so down on ourselves and our appearance. We seem to be constantly critical of ourselves and saying we need to improve this, that and the other about ourselves! And whilst we do this, we always find the time to compliment friends who do the same thing. How ironic then that we can’t find it in ourselves to do this for ourselves.

Before I get on to the challenge itself I did want to touch on this subject.

There has been a lot in the media recently about body shaming and how unacceptable it is. I have to agree but perhaps in a way not to be expected. There is often a lot of things in the media about body shaming those who are overweight; and I agree, people shouldn’t be teased or mocked for being curvy. And in response to this, on This Morning last week, three admittedly obese women came on the show in their bikinis to promote the fact that they wouldn’t be shamed by others for showing off their bodies. It’s great that these women were all about confidence and not taking any crap; these are attitude traits I really admire.

But would it have been the same if someone my size had gone on there. I’m a size 8 and I know I am very lucky to be naturally slim. But if that feature on the show had been about three women size 8 then it would have been vilified for promoting “unhealthy” slim body images and I’ve not doubt the “real women” brigade would have jumped on board. We constantly get told curves make a real woman, that men don’t want a “bag of bones”. Now how is being so negative towards those women who have a slimmer figure any better than shaming someone who is larger, and therefore putting their health at risk! It drives me mad.

Real women are about being strong, confident and above all, supportive of one another. There is enough unnecessary competition between women as it is, to then pitch curvy women against slim women, and make us skinny minnies feel like we aren’t as much of a real woman is ridiculous. There is so much support for plus sized ladies and the fact they shouldn’t be singled out, it’s a shame there isn’t  as much support for smaller ladies who also get singled for their “promotion of an unrealistic body image”! How about it’s not that, but that some people are just naturally smaller than others. Rather than all this, lets celebrate one another, all women, all shapes and sizes.

In turn we can then begin to feel more confident about ourselves, as we should. I actually felt quite nervous about doing this post initially because I didn’t want it to come across as arrogant or that I love myself. My intention with this post is to encourage you girls to find and celebrate features you like about yourself and remind yourself you’re beautiful every day. And I really hope that’s the message you take from it. And of course remember, beauty is only skin deep; what’s inside is what really counts and makes you the gorgeous person you are.

OK ranting over, here is my list of 5 things I’m fond of about in myself:

• My eyes; I like the fact they are green, big and I think my eyes give away a lot about me and how I’m feeling, which is something I really like
• My waist – I thought I’d lose this after having Josh but I’ve been very lucky and it’s survived!! I am going to keep working hard on it though.
• My bum. It’s safe to say my husband is obsessed with my bum! I never had great boobs but I always had a decent arse which is something I’m very happy about!
• My legs. I’ve inherited my long legs from my mums side of the family. I used to get teased at school for my skinny legs and was so miserable about it but now I’m so grateful for them!
• My freckles. Another thing I got teased for and it took a long, long time to feel positive about them. But now I like them; I think freckles on the nose are quite cute so I’m happy with them

So there we have it. I’d love some of you lovely fellow bloggers to write positively about yourselves and what you are happy with about yourself. Lets get this positive post doing the rounds. In the spirit of that I am going to nominate the following lovely ladies;

• Fran at Back with a Bump
• Emma at Island Living 365
• Katy at Hot Pink Wellingtons
• Sarah at Mumzilla
• Sarah at Mum Muddling Through

I hope you enjoyed this post and again, a big thanks to Eilidh for kicking all this off.

Thanks for reading x