Are You Beach Body Ready?
If you’re reading this, you must have a body and in that case, congrats! You’re beach body ready!
Around this time each year, I would gather up my determination and decide that I was going to have the “perfect” beach body. Of course, that never came to fruition because no matter what I looked like, I wasn’t satisfied. Plus, I was in a binge, restrict cycle that led to “failing” my diet over and over again. It took me a long time to figure out that regardless of my size, if I was at the beach, then I had a beach body. Let’s explore this a bit.
No matter what I looked like, I wasn’t satisfied. I think of this often and it helps remind me that my body is not the issue. The real problem is the voice in my head (thanks, societal norms) that continues to spew out nonsense about what I should look like if I’m going to be seen in a swim suit. For a while, looking at past pictures made me feel bad about my body. Why can’t I still be that thin? OMG, I wish I could fit into that outfit again! etc. But the more I work on body neutrality, the more I can appreciate what I was doing at the time a picture was taken, the people I was with or the expression on my face. I’m not perfect at this by any means. There are still days were I wish I was back to my thinner self, but I can always appreciate the body I have at this moment.
I was in a binge, restrict cycle that led to “failing” my diet over and over again. The first time I went on a diet, losing weight was considered a bonus. It was unintentional but I wasn’t going to complain. Unfortunately, this left a mark on me that gaining weight was unhealthy and all I needed to do to lose it again was to hit the diet hard. Cue the restriction, binge, shame, guilt spiral. It was nearly impossible for me to stick to a diet and even when I did, I wasn’t seeing the same results as before. Why? According to the Intuitive Eating Workbook written by Evelyn Tribole, “Your cells have no idea that you are choosing to restrict your calories (or some group of foods) for weight loss. One well-known survival adaptation they have is to slow down metabolism…Fat overshooting is another way the body tries to survive the dieting process. In essence, the loss of both fat and lean muscle tissue triggers the body to gain more weight in the form of body fat to survive.”
The beach does not discriminate. The sand, water, shells, seagulls, broken glass and cigarette butts don’t care what you look like. I would argue that most people at the beach also don’t care what you look like. Boy, wouldn’t it be nice if saying/hearing/reading this would help us not care about what we look like? It’s like telling someone to calm down when they are upset. While I’m not telling you something you’ve not heard or thought of yourself, maybe this mantra will help you when you decide to venture to your favorite spot.
You can wear whatever you want to the beach regardless of your body size. I remember the last time I was in Cancun, Mexico (pictured above) I saw this older woman walking the beach with her partner. She was a heavy women wearing this tiny swim suit and all I could think was, go on with your bad self! I thought, hey if she can do it, so can I! While my swim suit choice was different, I was happy to see someone else enjoying their surroundings and not worrying about their appearance. This gave me permission to worry less about my own appearance. Find something you’re comfortable wearing, whether it’s for physical or psychological comfort, say your mantra above and decide what you want to pay attention to when you get to where you’re going.
Beaches can be calming, relaxing, fun places where we can revisit our inner child and connect with nature. You don’t have to have a “perfect” (read thin, white, toned) body to wear a swim suit and enjoy your surroundings. We have been taught that only certain looking people are worthy of showing skin; and there are still people out there who will encourage you to hit the gym, get toned and shed weight all in the name of attaining a “beach body” or “summer body”. I am your stern reminder that these people are SELLING the idea (and their services) that you are not enough and need to fix yourself to enjoy these warmer months. That couldn’t be further from the truth, but I can certainly understand how just having that knowledge might not make you feel better. So, instead of trying to “feel better” how about we decide to just feel. Feel the breeze and the sun rays hit your face, feel the sand between your toes, feel your uneasiness or your comfortableness. Perfection is outdated my friends, but the beach is timeless.
