Thoughts On The Term “Bikini Body Ready”

Hi loves,

I’ve been inspired to write this post for a few weeks now and am excited that I have my second Youtube video to go along with it! Basically, I wanted to talk a bit about the term “bikini body ready” that we tend to see a lot this time of year. The weather is getting warmer and with that comes the added pressure to “drop a few extra pounds” and to “look our best in that bikini.” UGHHH!

Firstly, I want to point out how SICK I am of seeing messaging from companies, the diet industry, etc. that basically are created to make us feel like we aren’t enough just the way we are. Seriously, I couldn’t be any more over it. Just because a season is coming where it will be warmer, I don’t understand the need to put the FEAR into our hearts and minds that if we “don’t have a certain size shorts,” we won’t have fun at the beach or be worthy of love. OR that if we don’t look a certain way or have a thigh gap that we will have a shitty summer. I’m here to tell you that this messaging is absolute BS. I know this because I spent a good year and a half in this crappy cycle of not feeling “enough” because my shorts weren’t “small” enough or I didn’t have six pack abs. Having left that cycle way behind (which I am eternally grateful for), I needed to talk about this whole “bikini body ready” term with you guys in the hopes that I can raise awareness and bring light to the fact that the way that you look isn’t going to be what ensures you have a good summer.

From my personal experience, the summer that I spent where I was extremely thin and focused on all this “bikini body ready” crap was one of the most UNHAPPY summers of my life! Before I get too off topic and tell my entire life story, back to the whole “bikini body ready” term. We all have bodies, and in summer we all put them into a bathing suit, end of story. Rather than falling into this fear based cycle of feeling the need to fit into a certain mold or size, I think a much healthier and more effective way of building a positive relationship with our bodies is to focus on the way we FEEL. When we begin to focus on the way that we feel, give our bodies healthy and nourishing foods, and choose to partake in exercise that we actually enjoy rather than forcing ourselves to do something that we hate, we can leave this whole fear based cycle behind. I also found that when I said no to this cycle once and for all, and really committed to focusing on how I feel, my body started to settle at a healthy and natural weight and in turn I feel great in my own skin. I try and focus on what a gift it is that I have a health body that allows me to partake in exercises I enjoy, and try and replace any negative thought that may arise with a positive affirmation.

I’m going to do another post soon on the steps we can take to cultivate self-love and body acceptance soon but wanted to start by calling out this crappy “bikini body ready” term in the hopes that I can inspire you to say no to the cycle! There are so many messages like this coming at us all the time and I hope that this post can help you to have your blinders up to the information that we’re constantly being bombarded with. I also think that these messages are something that many of us struggle with but don’t often talk about! Let’s start a conversation and stand up to all the fear based BS.

I hope this was helpful. If you feel this could help a friend, I would love it if you could share it! <3

Thanks so much for reading and talk to you guys soon!