I recently went shopping with the fabulous Nicole Vine to get myself a new outfit for a new job. The corporate wear went out and the casual wear came in. The whole day is a separate story in itself but I came home and cut off all the tags so that I couldn’t return a thing. The tags lay on the ground as I hung up clothes – the numbers on those tags represented about 4 different sizes. I had spent hours trying on clothes and not once had I actually looked at a tag to see what size I was buying – except when Nicole tried to break my arm getting me into a too-small blazer 😊
You want to know a big secret about the size of your clothes – NO ONE CARES! The only time anyone will ever care what size you are wearing is when they want to borrow (or steal) your clothes because you look so fabulous. Do you think your friends are going to stop talking to you because you went up or down a size? There is a reason the tag is on the inside and not the outside. NO ONE CARES.
Whilst I jump up and down about clothing sizes – and don’t get me started on companies trying to get their sizing consistent – I am also going to point out that when it comes to the weight on your scales – NO ONE CARES. In April I ran 107kms through the mountains – it was an epic adventure that I loved. After this epic adventure I stopped running for a month to allow my body to recover but also to allow my mind to recover from the discipline that goes with training for such an event. During this month I lost count of how many people asked me a) how much weight did you lose on the actual run and b) how much weight have you put on when you stopped running for a month. The thing is – I don’t know, and I don’t care. I don’t weigh myself. I eat when I am hungry, and I eat what my body tells me it wants. Some days I crave chocolate and pizza and some days its salad. If you listen hard enough your body will tell you what it needs. I am by no means a ‘petite runner’ – but I also don’t care. I run because I love it, not to look a certain way. I run because of the feeling. I also eat because I love food. Oh, and we kinda need to eat to survive!
As we entered lockdown #4 in Victoria my friend told me her biggest concern was ‘getting fat again’ in lockdown, so she was going to starve herself for a week. My reply was to tag her in every body positive account on Instagram that I could find to remind her that lockdown is a time to look after ourselves and our loved ones – not to stress about our weight. If your social media feed needs a body positive tweak, I recommend the following:
If you know any more I have missed let me know!
Whether you are a runner, or a swimmer or something in between; move your body because you love it and it deserves to be healthy, not because you want to ‘earn calories’ to have a glass of wine with dinner. Ask, really ask, your body what it wants – Don’t eat the pizza because it’s ‘cheat day’ when your body is telling you it wants a big bowl of pumpkin soup. Don’t eat the soup when you just want a slice of pizza because then you will dream of dancing pizzas. Don’t ignore the hunger signals that your body sends you. Your body is designed to send you these signals to tell you to eat. We only get one body, and I am not telling you to love every bit of it, but you have to wake up with this body every single morning for the rest of your life. Every morning when you look in the mirror and instead of seeing beauty, and strength and power you’re looking at its flaws. Don’t you think it deserves a bit more love that what it’s getting.
Life is too short to be caring about what the scales tell you, or what your jeans size is. You spend so much time worrying and caring about this, but remember – NO ONE CARES!
Care for yourself instead by giving your body a little love this lockdown Melburnians xx
Great blog Jaq!
I love this Jaq! I plan to share with every woman I know. xx