Ive recently been thinking about how motherhood has effected my thoughts on body image. I’m much happier with my body image – despite the stretch marks and the affects that pregnancy has had on my body.
I think that I am even more aware of my body image and the ‘happy’ body image that I want to portray to my children, as I am not sure whether I am having a boy or a girl this time around. I think that it is important to portray a positive relationship with your body to both boys and girls…but I think it is so important to bring up girls with a positive body relationship.
When I was 16, I remember my boyfriend telling me that if I ever got as fat as his mother he would drag me behind his car to make me run to lose weight. I don’t know why I just let this comment go… maybe because I was young, maybe because I weighed a slight 52kgs and didn’t think I would end up like that, maybe because I let him get away with a lot of crazy things and that relationship changed the way I would interact with men forever more.
Six months before my wedding, my brother-in-law made me stand on scales. Yes, you are reading that correctly. And I was berated for weighing in at 62kgs.
Now, I am 163cm tall and so that weight put me at a healthy and happy BMI of 23 (with my recommended weight range from 49kgs – 66kgs).
But this didn’t stop me from taking up a crazy fittness routine prior to our wedding – excersizing 90 – 120 minutes everyday with a personal trainer, on top of all the netball I already played/umpired each week, and also got a body transformation treatment just for this event.
I lost 6kgs prior to my wedding and then fell pregnant on my honeymoon – almost seems like a waste doesn’t it?
But you know what falling pregnant changed the way that I looked at myself and it changed the way that I will allow other people to speak about my body (and that of my children).
I am a different body make up to that of my Eastern-European inlaws…
Baby got back (and quiet the bust)! But you know what? They are some of my most favourite things about my body – I am a women and I have womenly features. My children will have half of my genes and therefore, if I have girls they may be blessed with a full and voluptuous figure – and I don’t want them to be berated for it!
I am proud of my body and for what it has achieved. This body has won netball competitions, it has swam through the ocean, it has climbed mountains (I’ve actually trekked to the equivilant of Mt. Everest base camp). But more importantly, this body has created life – it has endured pregnancy and brought healthy, happy children into the world… And for that, I am eternally grateful to it.
Body – you crave a little chocolate here and there – you got it!
We all come in many shapes and sizes and it’s important that we are happy and healthy in our skin!
What are your thoughts and feelings towards your own body? Do you think having children has changed the way you view yourself? How do you raise a child with a healthy view on their own body?
