Coop just turned 1 recently and if I were to compare to my last two postpartum body journeys, a year after giving birth I was pretty confident to chuck a bikini on because my body had gone back to what I was always used to, but not this time around.

Now before you jump on me and say I should be grateful that I’ve been able to have babies,
I never said I wasn’t.
What I am saying is, i’m just not as confident as I used to be because my body has changed and I’m still getting used to it.

There is a big difference between those two things.

Apart from that time that I had an ED (which stemmed from a comment made to me by a “friend” that I wouldn’t be able to borrow a dress for a night out because I was much bigger than her) before my time as a mother, I have always been quite confident no matter what my body looked like. Honestly the way my body looked was never even something I focused on and since the years of becoming a mother and a trainer, i’ve just let it do it’s thing. I’ve been confident as a lean person, I’ve been confident as teenager going through puberty and I’ve been confident as a teenager who partied a bit too much and enjoyed many chicken burgers as a hangover cure.

For some reason since having Cooper, yes I do manage to see those changes and I do struggle to feel confident in certain outfits and I do struggle especially with choosing a bikini for the summer season.
When he was born, the newest style of swimmers I saw were the high waisted ones where everything could be tucked in and thought that would help, yet I still chose to sit on the sand avoid all water activities at that stage, saying I had to look after the baby.

It has been a complete mindfuck to be honest but I have been working really hard to combat these feelings about myself and overcome with self love and confidence thanks to some little self care practices every day.

Fast forward a year and my mindset now (and although I do still struggle), is,
"Yeah high waisted are cool and I feel comfy in them, but I want to show my kids that bodies are awesome no matter what they look like.”
I’m not sitting on the sand this year for two reasons:
1. I want to have fun with everyone else and I don’t want my kids remembering me sitting back
2. Coop runs really fast now and he’ll jump into the water if I don’t do anything about it

One thing I did notice when I began these practices is that when it came to self talk,
I was able to find the beauty in every single woman around me,
Yet I struggled to find it in myself.
It used to make me cry for the fact that I was being so horrible to myself.

Shifting my mindset towards my body has not been an easy thing to do, however as I mentioned before, doing some little self care practices every single day does really help and soon enough, you stop giving a fuck about the reasons why you struggle with your body and start focusing on the reasons you LOVE your body.

My little self care self love practices are:

• Stop giving a fuck what everyone else thinks

• Buy clothes that make you feel GOOD

• Say kind words about yourself in front of the kids, never speak ill of your body in front of them

• Don’t look back at old photos and compare yourself to your old self

• Don’t compare yourself to anyone else either

• Move your body because you love it, not because you hate it

• Drink lots of water (it has a bazillion benefits)

• Ask yourself how you’d feel if you heard your little girl saying horrible things about herself

• Surround yourself with positive people

• If you need to, see a health professional

• Only follow people on social media who make you feel good, like some of my favourites:
  @amysheppardpie
  @samirose
  @bodyimagemovement
  @thebirdspapaya

Please don’t miss out on some epic times because your mind is telling you that you can’t wear a bikini.
You deserve to love yourself and remember that there are little eyes watching and little ears listening,
Plus, those same little people love you no matter what. You created them and you deserve to enjoy being a mother to them no matter what body you’ve got.

You are beautiful, every bit of you.

Sending so much love,
And ROCK THAT BIKINI!

Lauren
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