First of all, I want to say thank you all for the sweet words of support and love on my last post about body positivity (if you missed it you can go back and read it here – and don’t miss the comments!!). You guys are just simply AMAZING! I’m so glad I bit the bullet and just hit publish on that post – I believe telling our story has power and will help give other people (women in my case) power to own their story and believe in what they have to offer the world!
Now that we have that out of the way, I am really excited about today’s blog post. You might be thinking “Now, Skye, you’re just one woman and just because YOU have a positive outlook on your body doesn’t mean the rest of the world does too…” so I’m here today to share with you some input from some of my favorite women on the internet and how they were also able to find beauty and confidence in theirselves too. So read on, be inspired, and enjoy!
Kait Hanson
Kait is one of my favorite women to follow on the internet. She is a world traveler, dog lover, semi-professional chef, and an incredibly inspiring person. Find her on Instagram here. She lives with her husband, Dane, and her two dogs, Bill & Judy in Hawaii. I love what she has to say!
1. What are one or two things that you contribute your body positivity/acceptance to?
I think the most important driving force in my life is my mom and her strong sense of self, which is something I’ve always admired about her. She juggled being a single mom in a time when being a single parent was not a common occurrence, as well as a C-suite level job in a male-dominated profession. If she ever had a weakness, I never knew about it. She taught me that if you want to be able to love others, you must first love yourself. Her confidence has always been contagious to me.
2. What advice would you give another woman who is seeking to accept her body?
Love the ‘right now’, because if you cannot love yourself through every stage, you will never be content – even when you reach your end goal. You will always want whatever is “next”, striving for some imaginary goal of perfection.
3. What are one or two practices or disciplines you have taken on to remain confident in your body?
Get rid of anything in your house that contributes to an unhealthy focus. For a period of my life, I really struggled with disordered thinking and eating. I would be lying if I said those thoughts don’t sometimes creep their way back into my head. When my husband and I moved in together, he noticed my obsession with the scale. I let it dictate what I ate, which clothes I wore, how hard I needed to workout, and if I was ‘allowed’ to treat myself. The scale held a scary power over me and one day Dane was like “this is fucking ridiculous!” and he threw the scale away. I panicked, but it was the wake up call I needed. These days we DO have a scale in our house again (one that alerts both of us in an app on our phone when the other weighs in, so I would be totally busted if Dane’s phone kept getting dinged with weigh-ins), but I find myself caring less about the number and more about how I feel. Life is about so much more than numbers on a scale and exercise should be a celebration of what our bodies can do, not a punishment for what we ate. Beauty is being strong, confident, healthy and content – values that will never be measured in pounds.
Katie Crenshaw
If you’re not already following Katie, then just stop right here and go follow her on Instagram. Her real, relatable approach to motherhood, mental health, and well, life, is so refreshing and educational without being belligerent or obnoxious. Also, as a fellow seven on the Enneagram, I feel like we are connected in some cosmic way. (Hope that is not too creepy Katie lol). She also shares a lot about body positivity, so I knew I needed to include her outlook in this post!
1. What are one or two things that you contribute your body positivity/acceptance to?
I struggled with eating disorders in my teenage years, and I maintained a pretty negative relationship with food until my late 20s. Being with a partner who supported me and loved my appearance really helped me heal and change my critical viewpoint of myself. I’ve also had two babies in the last three years, so I am giving myself a lot of grace in this season.
2. What advice would you give another woman who is seeking to accept her body?
I always say not to get hung up on the “positive” part of body positive. Some days you’re not going to feel positive, but every day you can accept your body. A mantra that helps me stay healthy mentally and physically is “I’m grateful for this body and I will pay attention to what it needs from me.” That could mean everything from moving more, resting more, nourishing better, it is your body. I have found that just paying attention to it can make huge changes.
3. What are one or two practices or disciplines you have taken on to remain confident in your body?
I never refuse to buy clothes until I am at some kind of goal size. I always want to feel good and what I am wearing no matter what size I currently am. I also stay very realistic about genetics which is something I did not always do. For example, my basic bodyweight is going to be very different from another woman with different genes and that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with me. lastly, for me personally, using my body’s capabilities keeps me really proud of the body I am in no matter what size it is. After a fun workout class or playing with my kids in the backyard, I don’t get hung up on how many calories I burned I just stay in a grateful place that my body can do that. It naturally keeps my confidence up.
Samantha Foster
Y’all, Samantha is the real. deal. She is in my mastermind group, is a blogger at The Pink Envelope, (IG here) and helps her husband run a successful (and incredible) photography business. Oh and she manages to run her household and be an amazing mama and positive role model to her two sweet daughters. I am so blessed to have Sam in my life to tell me like it is, even when I don’t want to hear it, and be a woman so dedicated to her faith to be an example to me!
1. What are one or two things that you contribute your body positivity/acceptance to?
That I am who I am. And I am who God made me. And I surround myself with people who live by these standards. Do I love everything about my body? No, I have some change requests LOL but it is my body and it is the only one I will ever have.
2. What advice would you give another woman who is seeking to accept her body?
Remember there are things you can change, work well to change those (exercise, diet, healthy living, etc) as appropriate but there are also other things we can not change and those you need to just accept. They are part of the things that make you, You! And if you accept you, others will too. And if by chance you come across someone who can’t accept you, well they didn’t need to be in your tribe anyhow.
3. What are one or two practices or disciplines you have taken on to remain confident in your body?
Making changes to the areas I can (aka: if I don’t like my excess belly fat I cut the food and increase the exercise) so that I feel good about knowing I have done my part. I also don’t compare! I am who I am and I do well in this body right here. If I were to magically get the body of someone I was jealous of, I would be disappointed in that body too. There is no perfect body and it is a state of mind.
Shannon Mattern
Shannon is another beautiful soul that is in my mastermind group and aside from being beautiful, she is smart as a whip and knows her way inside, outside, and all the way around a wordpress website (that is an art people.) I have loved getting to know her more over the past year and you’ll love what she has to say!
1. What are one or two things that you contribute your body positivity/acceptance to?
Growing up I had a couple of friends whose parents were either criticizing their weight or constantly talking about it, and I feel so, so fortunate that my parents never said anything that was critical of my body or made me feel self conscious. And now as an adult, I have amazing friends that won’t let me talk crap about myself in those weak moments!
2. What advice would you give another woman who is seeking to accept her body?
I’d suggest she ask herself this question: “What do I care more about – what I think about my body, or what other people think about my body?” Because what other people think about your body is none of your business, and you can decide at any moment that it’s okay to accept your own body no matter what anyone else thinks of it. You’re the one that has to live in it every single day, why make it a miserable experience for yourself?
3. What are one or two practices or disciplines you have taken on to remain confident in your body?
I can be really good at not looking at my body, or wearing the same kinds of clothes all the time so that I can avoid working on being confident about it… So when I joined a hot yoga studio that’s basically a room full of mirrors, it forced me to see myself from all different angles all the time. And I found myself thinking “I’m not thinking crappy thoughts about the bodies of any of the other women in this room, so why am I allowing myself to think that way about my body?” Treating myself as I’d treat my best friend is a really quick way to snap myself back to reality when I’m starting to go down the rabbit hole of criticizing my arms or legs or whatever.
Maggie Bailey
Maggie is someone that I have had the pleasure of meeting thanks to Bree, and she and her husband own a flower shop in Tomball, TX called Bramble & Bee. She is one of the most creative people I have ever met and can do things with flowers that look impossible. In addition to being beautifully creative, she is also just plain gorgeous. I’ll stop blabbering so we can get to her good stuff!
1. What are one or two things that you contribute your body positivity/acceptance to?
Fashion! I’m not the be all end all of fashionistas but I do love playing with my style. I worked retail for a long time and I can promise you that there are ways to dress and style any shape and size! ASOS, Anthropogie, Madewell, Target (just to name a few) all have a full range of sizes!
I also think it’s invaluable to surround yourself with people who are confident. How many of us learned our self consciousness from our families or close friends growing up? Surround yourselves by friends and mentors who don’t spend their time worrying about the way they look and they will rub off on you!
2. What advice would you give another woman who is seeking to accept her body?
Get off of social media! Or at least, be super intentional about who you follow. There’s nothing like a stream of attractive, well dressed, seeming successful ‘influencers’ to make you feel inadequate. Marie Kondo your instafeed and get rid of anything that doesn’t bring you joy! Follow things and people who actually inspirational! (Some of my favorites are @KatieSturino, @ali_tate_cutler, and @skyenmclain! They are successful, real life women who have lives outside of Instagram and each has a distinct style that I can totally relate to!)
3. What are one or two practices or disciplines you have taken on to remain confident in your body?
There are a couple of things! First, doing things that are kind for my body- no matter what shape my body is in, when I’m putting good, healthy food in it, staying active, and a little self care (my guilty pleasure is a good blowout!) I always feel ace. Let me be clear that I’m not the type who exercises everyday and eats salads for lunch every day. I am a very regular person, who doesn’t always care for my body but when I make the smallest decisions to be kind to my body, it cares for me right back.
Second, playing up my strengths! I wear a size 14/16 and while I don’t always love my mid section but I’m nearly 6 ft tall and I loooooove my height. Skinny jeans, lower v neck tops, and shoes with a slight platform accentuate my height and make me feel like Wonder Woman the Amazon!
I am so thankful to each of these women for sharing part of their story and journey with me and you, so please show them some love by following them on Instagram or leaving a comment below, telling us something that really touched you from this post!
Love Love Love this! The whole thing turned out so good. This is 100% truth and so encouraging. Thank you for making this happen.