Bikini Ready Beach Body
The past weekend was the official first weekend of spring. You could kind of feel it in the air. After the long, cold and unrelenting winter, everyone seems to be ready for sunshine and warmer weather.
The other sure sign that it’s spring? Magazines, commercials and blogs reminding us that, “It’s XX days until bikini season!” and “Get your body bikini-ready!”
Perhaps the best advice that I’ve read recently on getting a beach-ready body came from Carla:
- Put on a bathing suit.
- Go to a beach.
It should be that simple right? I wish that it was that simple and that we were beyond being body conscious.
When I was younger, I never thought that I would have a body appropriate for a bikini, probably a combination of being shy, not having the self-confidence and believing that I didn’t have the right body type.
Last year, we planned to spend a month over the summer in Hawaii. That meant bathing suits, shorts and tank tops pretty much every day.
Yes, I was running and exercising but for the first time, I didn’t totally stress and freak out about it. There wasn’t the usual frenetic and frantic energy involved in whipping my body into shape (or at least attempting to). I wanted to run, so I did. I wanted to lift, so I did.
Contrast to now. We’re going to the beach in a few weeks and I am stressing about how my body looks. I’m worrying about how I will look in my bathing suit and I’m struggling with eating healthy. I’m running and exercising at a similar level yet, I don’t feel the same way about my body.
{FYI my weight has remained steady, give or take five pounds, probably since college so it’s not a matter of my actual body weight increasing or decreasing that is causing my body issues.}
I realize that the way that I feel about my body, the clothes that I choose to wear and how I feel wearing a bathing suit is very much dependent on how I feel about my body that day as well as my confidence level.
I don’t just mean my confidence in how I think my body looks but my confidence in how I feel about me – the work that I’m doing, if I feel connected and happy.
Back in the summer, I was feeling healthy and confident. I was also about to start something new and embark on a new career path. For the first time in a long time, I was excited.
And that carried over even while we were in Hawaii. I wasn’t eating differently. I was probably working out less than I was at home. Yet, I felt strong and confident, and I wore a bikini every day.
And now?
Carla made me question why my confidence level has recently taken a dive. I think that it does have to do with work-related stress and a general sense of feeling acknowledged and worthy. While starting out on a new path is exciting, it’s also scary and there’s a lot of self-doubt involved.
Being a freelance writer involves a lot of pitching and a lot of rejection. And, as much as you can let that roll off your back and pick your self off, it can still take its toll after a while and maybe that’s having an impact.
Being a yoga teacher in a highly saturated market like New York City, is a different challenge in and of itself. {Yes, I realize the irony of stress yoga mentioned together.}
And maybe all of that has been affecting me more than I have realized.
I do wish that it was as easy as two steps to get bikini body ready for me, for most of us. I wish that there weren’t other complicating layers – layers that seem to multiply as soon as you think that you’ve cleared away one. I wish that it wasn’t so hard for us to see the beauty in ourselves.
Have you read my essay on Mamalode and what happens in those moments between the waves?
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