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Gratitude Diary Day 11/100 — Give Thanks
By: Adeline Anoma Ho
Tags: Gratitude, Mindfulness, Give Thanks, Body Positive

Gratitude Diary Day 11/100 — Give Thanks

The practice of giving thanks for my body didn’t start until a few years back. Prior to this, I tend to lament “why is this so or why is this not so” with my body. I guess it is particularly tough for me because my relationship with my body has been, and still is, fraught with much difficulties and dissatisfaction.

When I had a chance to consciously reflect 7 years ago , I realized how angry, demanding, unappreciative and unkind I had been to my body. I had forgotten about the many miracles that this body performed on a daily basis. I had forgotten that this body had been staying and keeping up with my life’s tempo and challenges. I had been upset when it was down and I didn’t give thanks when it was up and well. In short, I have taken this body for granted.

That moment of realization put me to shame and regrets. Honestly if I am not kind and loving to self, how can I be a happy and peaceful human being for a start? And without joy and contentment how can I live a life that is positively skillful and peaceful with loved ones and friends?

Since then, I have been having this simple exercise,whether I’m ill or healthy, of thanking the body and acknowledging the constant support I receive from each and every part of it including hair, eyes , limbs and even organs.

I also try to thoughtfully listen to my body ( without being overly paranoid ) to understand what it needs or doesn’t need to be well with nourishing food, exercises and sometimes medical care.

Over time, the body slowly responds to be fueled with optimism and good energy.

Yes, I believe I’m now more understanding, kinder and happier. Thanks to this practice of gratitude. 🙏
Self love isn’t a luxury;it is a necessity.
By: Agnus Rose Paul
Tags: Writing, Happiness, Body Positive, Confidence, Self Love

Growing up as a brown person with not so attractive features, I always felt inferior to everyone around me. I used to feel that I didn’t deserve to do the things that other ‘pretty girls’ my age did- find love, wear your hair nicely or even put on a bit of makep. I still remember the fear I felt the first time that I wore eyeliner to school, and that too because my friend forced me to do so. I was so paranoid of people judging ms that I felt like people were laughing behind my back about how I tried to look pretty. Such was the inferiority complex that had taken deep roots in me..

This inferiority complex due to the colour of my skin used to hold me back from almost everything I wanted to do. To add to this, I had no one to talk to about this. So I just let myself believe that I was the ugly duckling from the Dickens story that I had read while I was in the second grade. I still regret all of the opportunities I had lost just because I believed myself inferior to others.

But one day, one of my teachers told me that I was beautiful and I felt so happy. Still, I tried to convince her otherwise and kept insisting that she was wrong. I just couldn’t acknowledge that I was as worthy and deserving of love as the other girls my age. But she kept telling me that I was perfect just the way I was for a long while until one day I started believing it too. And the change that this belief made in my life is drastic..

Once I started to believe that I was beautiful just the way I was and accepted myself, my confidence began to grow. I started to talk to more people and find happiness in it. I made a lot of new friends, grabbed a lot of opportunities and showed my worth and talent to everyone around me. There were times when even the people who bullied me came up to me and congratulated me. Even if they were baby steps in my journey, I can see how much of a change it made in my life. It made me more happy and grateful and this in turn helped me to enjoy life more and do the things that I wanted. Sometimes, I wonder who I would be today if I had still believed the way I did when I was a teenager. And that is exactly why I stand firmly by the belief that all of us should love ourselves irregardless of our flaws. Lets face it- no one on this earth is born without flaws. But those flaws are the ones that make each and every one of us special and unique. So instead of covering up your flaws, flaunt them! Take time off your busy schedule to let your body know how much you love it!! Pamper it with kindness and affection. Believe!!

-In yourself and in your body.

Because no matter what any one else says, you should always know that you are beautiful inside out❤️

More power to you!!
Tips to know how increase your stamina
By: Manish Thakur
Tags: Exercise At Home, Healthcare, Exercise, Body Positive, Stamina

Life nowadays is really hectic. You need to be very energetic to complete all your daily jobs(professional) and still hangout with family and friends. However, people often complain of them getting tired and unable to perform their work to the best. Moreover, it took thousands of years for human beings to discover food with essential nutrients that we need. But, within a hundred years we transformed our way of having meals. Now we eat lots of junk foods, mostly packed. These meals don’t fulfill all our body needs as a result we feel terribly exhausted even after climbing a few stairs.

Though there are steroids and supplements available to boost your stamina, most people don’t prefer it. Don’t worry, here are some natural tips for you that will help you to increase your stamina and stay energetic throughout the day. But, remember you have to take it slow and stay patient. The results won’t turn out in a single day, however you can see the differences after a certain period of time depending upon your dedication towards it.

Tips to increase your stamina

Workout & exercises how increase your stamina

Do Isometric Exercises

People also call it a static strength training exercise. These exercises include being in a position other than moving and applying tension to certain muscles without moving surrounding joints. These are very fruitful in improving physical endurance. Isometric exercises include a Plank position, Side bridge, Wall-sit, yoga position like chair and tree poses.

Go for long walks and cycling

This is very helpful for beginners. Walking for like an hour or half boosts your physical endurance. Cycling of all kinds ie,. indoor cycling, mountain biking or road biking is very helpful.

Check out the full story at https://inquisitor.xyz/tips-to-know-how-increase-your-stamina/
To the body shamer, the online troll, and anyone in between
By: Mereyian Selantei
Tags: Self-awareness, Human Parts, Self Acceptance, Body Positive, Self Love

Of all the insensitive and somewhat berating comments, I had received about my body, yours happens to be my favorite. I was 13, happy, chubby, and oblivious about cultural standards of beauty. I still remember how you watched my face fall, drained of color as you made your remark. I opened my mouth, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to respond so I forced a smile and figured out how to slip away. I was like a piece of artwork in a museum and you the passerby openly critiquing the artist’s performance. For the first time I felt collateral, for the first time I knew there was right and wrong when it came to God-given bodies and for the first time, I had failed a test I didn’t know I had taken.

Image courtesy of Pinterest

The following years of my teenage hood were filled with a shocking realization that people like you were the norm rather than the exception. I was oriented into this new world where your person hood was overshadowed by your body. Your body was a conclusion, if you were larger than the ideal then you were unhealthy and you needed a bit more work, if you were smaller then the ideal then you had to gain a bit more, not too much, just a little, lest you fall on the other side of condemnation. It was a circus, the trophy body always out of reach. It was a competition, fueled entirely by a deep sense of inadequacy created by one person’s opinion. I was the product of a world that simply said, who you are is not enough.

I may never know your story; it is not mine to expect neither is it anyone’s to demand. But I do know one thing, when some bodies are held up as examples of what not to look like and what not to be, it creates a culture of judgement and rejection which leads to a world of hate and shame. Our cultural conversations are devoid of the voices and experiences of the people in them. There is only one voice which speaks- the voice which sets a yardstick of what our bodies should look like and when one voice speaks, it is not a conversation, it is judgement, it is a lecture,and every aspect of body shaming feeds into this tyranny. Judging someone by the size of their body is strictly visual, it flattens a whole and beautiful person.

Image courtesy of Pinterest

So to you my darling, I hope you allow people to show you the authenticity of their souls without resorting to labeling their bodies as maligned instruments. I hope you allow people the grace to show up as themselves without feeling the need to be something else. Above all, I hope you call up the strength and courage to love yourself, it is as important for my subsistence as it is for yours.

I have called a truce with my embattled body; I have made peace with my person. I have entrusted my creator and I’ve gone to great lengths not to question his blueprint. The grass is wayyyy greener on this side of self-acceptance, probably because it has been fertilized by your bullshit!

You still don’t think I’m sexy?

Okay!
HOW DOES OUR BODY PERCEPTION AFFECT US?
By: Pelin Yi̇ri̇
Tags: Body Image, Body Positive, Self

Did you know that most people are not happy with the body they live in? Especially, most of the women are not happy about their weights, and no matter what their shape, they want to be thinner. When I think about this and made readings about this topic there are lots of reasons like ‘’other people’s thoughts, have a perfect body, external stimulus’, media, and many other things. It never ends. Constantly, everybody sometimes we fight all the time of ourselves. Because we grow up those thoughts and sayings like ‘’if you are tall and thin you can wear everything but if you are fat and overweight you should cover this.’’ However, in the meantime we forgot one extremely important thing: ‘’ Nobody and nothing can’t be perfect, there is no perfection in the universe and real beauty in every aspect of our and accept that, and we don’t have to cover up something’’.

A few days ago I listened to a podcast about regarding body made by existentialist psychologist Ferhat Jak İçöz. He said that we take into account the comments of people whose names we do not even know. When I was listening to him that sentence impressed me so much and made me think that why do we care about others opinions so much? Well, it is pretty hard to ignore other’s opinions but if we change some things others opinions impact our opinions, feelings, and eating styles towards ourselves.

I will say a few things about how we stop fighting with our bodies but before that I want to talk about how we behave our bodies and ourselves. Have you ever noticed that have you treated your body as a machine? Many people include me sometimes even often behave our bodies as machines. When we behave our bodies like this we saw our negative side, weight, physical appearance becomes an independent object from us and as we keep treating ourselves as a machine our vision can’t change. However, people are whole in all aspects. Keep trying what your bodies saying to you and try to build a relationship with it. When we start to make this both perception and eating changes. Because, binge eating, eating less food, and doing sports for ours is just signals to send by our bodies to us.

Now, I will explain briefly how to stop fighting with our bodies?

• Functionality: Which part don’t you like your bodies? You may not like one or more parts of your body. However, if you think even for a few seconds how important that organ is and it’s functions many things can change.

• Explore: You can think and find why you are not happy about that.

• Don’t postpone: Happiness is not related about giving 2 or 5 weights, those kinds of thoughts just affect you negatively.

• Leave all or nothing thoughts: As I said before there is no perfect body and perfection, you don’t have to be perfect for positive body perception, you don’t have to love every part your bodies.

Once for all, we are beautiful with every aspect of ours and there are no significant beauty standards.
How to Become a Bodybuilder
By: Emanuel Gremory
Tags: Bodybuilding, Body Positive, Workout, Gym

Most guys who hit the gym aspire to get big. They see pictures of guys online, or even in their own gym, and aspire to be like them — they want to be bodybuilders. So they start copying the workouts of these big guys. Then they go online and buy all the supplements they’re told to take. Yet the years go by and their gains are minimal. So they feel dejected and give up entirely.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. The problem is that most guys want to become bodybuilders overnight, but it’s just not going to happen like that. There are no quick fixes or magic bullets here. It’s something that takes years, and it’s a lifestyle that a person needs to adopt.

The Most Important Factors

Being a bodybuilder isn’t for everyone. In fact, it’s for only a select few men out there. What it takes to get huge comes down to a number of factors, most of which people are not willing to adhere to. So what does it take? Here are a few of the most important factors.

Supplements

Lifters should not rely on supplements to pack on size and strength as the majority of their gains should and will come through diet and training alone, but for bodybuilders supplements take on a much more important role. This is because bodybuilders need every small advantage they can get. And because their diets and training regimens are already dialed in, supplements like protein powder and creatine will give them the slight edge they need to take their success to the next level.

Supplements do come at a cost. They can cost hundreds of dollars per month when you add everything up. This isn’t even including anabolic steroids and other chemical compounds that most bodybuilders take. And remember, this is on top of an already large grocery bill.I have some products that have helped me, I will leave the products below, maybe you want to try them

CrazyBulk

Testogen

NiacinMax

Dedication

Bodybuilders don’t miss workouts- period! And while being sick or hungover is one thing, not having the motivation to hit the gym is another. Being dedicated goes even deeper than that. It means being passionate about something and willing to do whatever it takes to achieve your goal.

Focus

One problem that a lot of novice bodybuilders face is that they’re always trying to find the next best workout. Bodybuilders on the other hand have taken years to find what works best for them. So their workouts, while varying in the details, are always based around the same principles.

If you want to be successful bodybuilder this means two things. First of all it means that you’re going to be willing to spend the time to find what exercises, rep schemes etc. work for you. After that, you’re going to have to stick to that regimen. Focus on the long-term goal at hand.

Again, don’t get discouraged, but being a bodybuilder isn’t easy and you have to be realistic. Though if you truly put your mind and body to the test, you will most certainly achieve great things

Diet
On Bras, Bisexuality and Being Myself. A Feminist’s Ode
By: Maria Romanenko
Tags: Self Care, Feminism, Body Positive, Women, Self Love

Roman Kraft / Unsplash

This is an ode to loving myself. Being myself. Caring for myself.

Not waiting for somebody else to take care of me.

This is an ode to finally giving up padded, wired, push-up bras. Because I bought two bras yesterday that are made of cotton and don’t have any padding or wiring. The tags on them say “My first bra”. Because obviously — in this messed up, patriarchal society — comfortable bras are only meant for teenage girls. Grown women’s predetermined fate is to suffer through thick, uncomfortable bras that make your breasts sweat and painfully rub into your skin.

Bras are evil and, I’m pretty sure, were designed to demean women.

This is an ode to not shaving when I don’t want to. And not feeling embarrassed when I lift my arms. Because a little bit of hair does not make you less attractive.

This is an ode to never saying “I can’t eat this” because it’s sugary, fatty, or whatever. I can’t remember the last time I stopped myself from eating something for those reasons only. The only time I decide to not eat a certain food is when I realise that my body does not want it. But I know plenty of women who purportedly restrict their diets because they think they need to lose weight. You won’t lose weight for good until you learn to love yourself — I know this painfully well.

This is an ode to not labelling myself. To not defining myself as “straight” and then wondering if finding some women sexually attractive makes me a liar. Because most women are bisexual. And if this is news to you, then your friends’ circle needs to be more honest and open with each other.

This is an ode to not looking at others to decide where I should be at this stage of my life. To not thinking that somebody finding my friend more attractive means I’m less worthy overall. If this happened to you, brace. For every person out there that is more interested in your friend, there is another person who would find more value in your company. And if that person is not in a visible vicinity right now, it does not mean they do not exist.

There’s only one version of you in this entire world. And if I did not fully understand what “be yourself” means until around three years ago, now I don’t understand what not being myself is.
How I fell in love with my mum bod.
By: Karo Omu
Tags: Musings, Gorgeous, Body Positive, Body Image, Fat Girl

This isn’t some rosy post about how my stretch marks are battle scars lmao, I hate them on some days and other days, I don’t remember they exist. Before I had my daughter, I was overweight, there was never a time that I wasn’t trying to lose weight in some way or just diet my way out of being fat.

My pregnancy journey was filled with drama, but at 20 weeks, my doctor told me that he was certain I was going to have an over 4kg child, It changed everything for me. My tummy was going to get big and bigger and there was nothing I could do about it so I gave myself a break until I had my baby. I ended up having a CS and developing intense back ache post baby and it became increasingly clear I was not going to drop the weight as soon as I thought.

It seemed futile to be stressing over things that did not make me happy and to be honest, it seems like a bad decision not to like the body you are in, I mean you might not like it every day but it’s stressful as hell. It took me a little bit to walk into the store and pick a dress in my new size, but I did, I also thought of all the things I liked about this mum bod. My boobs were glorious pre baby but post baby, they are gorgeous and living a whole life of their own.

When I look in the mirror now, the first things that jump out are the things I like about this body. Do I still have insecurities that date back to years and years ago? Yes. Am I conscious of the words I use with myself and others? Yes. This is why I am really mindful of the energy I put in when it comes to my body image. I also found out that many people feed off your own body confidence so they don’t put much efforts into speaking negatively of my body when they see that I am clearly in love with it.

Only the most beautiful not pregnant bump

I recently started running and it instantly improved my image of myself. I haven’t gotten on the scale since I started but I genuinely feel fit and that translates to me being so so much beautiful. Sometimes I dress up and it lifts my mood or image, there’s something about looking good that translates to feeling good.

So whether you are a size 2 or an 18 like me, I feel like there’s really much love within that you can give your curves, flabs or those parts of your body that seem longer than they should be.

Anyway, that’s what worked for me, hope it does something for you too. I know body image is multi layered and not as simple as a 500 word blog post but maybe we can go into it a little more in the future?
When your partner isn’t satisfied
By: Lola Phoenix
Tags: Advice, Relationships, Polyamory, Body Positive, Love

CW: This week’s column discusses mentions of weight loss.

Iv been with my boyfriend for nearly five years now and over the last year Iv put on some weight, iv always been a little chunky but now it’s become a real issue for him. He says he no longer finds me attractive and describes our intimacy as ‘vanilla’.

He’s now bought to light that he’s curious about sleeping with other people but doesnt want to leave me, he’s added that he has always been interested in this lifestyle change but because I’v always been a jealous girlfriend he’s never shared that.

I can not pull myself away from this anxiety of the entire situation.

If he’s willing to sleep with other woman what’s stopping him from starting a new relationship with another woman?

Now knowing I’m vanilla, I feel far more inadequate. He’s asked if we could do things together with other people but I dont think I would be able to control my jealousy.

How do I separate sex and our relationship?

How do I contain my jealousy and appreciate that he doesn’t want to have a relationship with anyone else(yet)?

I’m really struggling not to take this all to heart

Any advice or experience would be hugely appreciated, thank you.
Thankful For These Toes
By: Jessica Sanam Hekmat
Tags: Thanksgiving, Yoga, Gratitude, Body Positive, Self Love

Thankful For These Toes

Three minutes into yoga, I noticed my toes. They looked wrinkly. Not luxuriously pruney as if they had just enjoyed 20 minutes in a jacuzzi, but like they had aged overnight. They looked weathered, sun damaged, and old. I started to move through my asana sadly, wondering if these toes matched my 37 year-old body or if I was witnessing the consequences of negligence. I knew my grownup bedtime beauty routine should have included moisturized socked feet, but I never felt like doing it — the way I ignored washing a face full of make-up after a particularly long, fun and drunken night out in my twenties. In down dog, I caught myself chastising my younger self. I imagined myself at 65, pulling at my wrinkles in the mirror, wondering how and when I got so old.

Perhaps it was the chest expansion that created a shift. I suddenly struggled to hold back a chortle, as I thought of all the life my toes had lived up to this point.

I stuffed these toes into too-pointy heels, while working a four-hour press junket and ushering talent down a red carpet. These toes burned as I ran towards the ocean in Thessaloniki, realizing too late how hot the sand was. God, the number of times these toes have slammed into a wall, a bed post or a too-tight bathroom corner wall. These powerful toes won me a gold medal at a swim meet when I was 10. I soaked these bruised toes for hours to thaw them after nighttime snowboarding lessons 40 minutes from my college apartment. These toes struggled to walk in countless shoes, flat and stiletto, for the 22 years I prioritized aesthetic over comfort. These toes curled so tight, they constricted blood flow, as I neared four hours of attempting to push my first born out into this world. These toes slammed pavement as I ran towards a nearly missed train from Paris to Amsterdam, and a shuttle from Sao Paolo to Rio, and a flight home from Tel Aviv… These toes have danced to the beat — in nightclubs I had to talk my way into, and now while holding my baby in our living room dance party. These toes slammed so hard on the brakes, when a truck driver not-so-politely brought my attention to the fact that I driving on the wrong side of the road to Mont Saint Michel. These toes have been kissed and squeezed, by my childhood caretakers and by my loving life partner.

By shavasana, I was nearly in tears with gratitude for these toes. In love, filled with adoration for these toes.
Marks
By: Comfort. Without Apology.
Tags: Body Image, Body Positive, Stretch Marks

Marks denoting the stretch, the pull, the beautiful elasticity of my skin. I marvel, as I stroke my ripples; slightly punctuated by raised skin – soft yet rigid, bumpy and prominent in some areas, whilst faint in others.

I love them. I hate them.

Love, because they are part of me. They are a reminder of the brilliance of the human body, of its ability to adapt, its capability – irrespective of how much I adore or loathe their ability to accommodate me – come what may.

Hate, because, I can’t help but feel cheated by their intentions. For as long as I can remember, stretch marks have been synonymous with pregnancy. Mother’s often speak of their tiger stripes, battle scars earned on the journey of child bearing and all of the joy that it brings.

Skin tapestry akin to wonderment, at the prospect and experience of housing life, of nurturing the spirit and soul of a whole human-being-to-be.

But… what for us… those of us adorned with marks of stretch, yet no fruit of labour (or loins) to celebrate? Are our battle scars inflicted in vain?

Why do our stretch marks – beautiful or otherwise – mock us so?

Rippling in low light, taunting us as permanent reminders of unfulfilled possibility; of skin stretched without purpose, other than the burden of accommodating simple loss and gain, of fat?

© 2019 Comfort

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Thanks in advance for reading/sharing/commenting.

If you feel moved to, please leave a comment and if you’re feeling particularly generous, a share on social media is always appreciated. Thanks in advance!

#StretchMarks #Image #BodyPositivity #Motherhood

#ComfyWrites • Comfort, Without Apology. • T: @ComfortWA • I: @ComfortWithoutApology • FB: www.facebook.com/comfortwithoutapology
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By: Kiren Tarkey
Tags: Weight Loss, Keto Extra Strength, Bodypositive, Healthypills, Fitness

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ConTOUR
Tags: Love And Sex, Relationships, Body Positivity, Poetry On Medium, Body Positive

ConTOUR

Her contour is the whole of her. Her shape in its entirety. It is not the view when she is constricted in corsets that exists to further her end.

Her contour is not the unmarred hourglass with so lean a form presented solely to delight the senses of many addled by construct.

It is not a skin devoid of wrinkles as the photographer has made her be.

Her contour is her. The whole of her.

Her contour is her fat shapely legs. It is her thighs marked with stripes so beautiful it is larger than life. It is her stomach. So soft, so tender, so sensual.

It is the rolls that grace her back.

It is the cream curved lines that starts from the curve of her ass to further spread over sides that crinkles with the gentlest of prods.

Skin that folds when she lays.

It is a wonder my hands seek when we hold. She stiffens at the find, and there is something about the pause.

Something about the complete desire so surrendered when she leans into that embrace. Something about her desperate hold as I let my fingers explore at a measured pace.

It is her body. Her rolls that take form when she lays, one leg thrown over the other.

She lays bare, and the curves are impossible to resist in the dim of the night.

Something about her eyes when she sees me staring. When she pulls the sheets down. When she runs her small, dark fingers delicately over the soft that is her middle.

And then, down.

She traces it over her ass. Over the front of the black thong I picked for the tour.

She raises a leg teasingly, and she moves.

There is something about her. Clothed in a blue beach wear with ropes that gets lost in her middle.

In the adventure that is her back.

There is something about the dimples at the small of her back. Another delight I love to loose my tongue in.

Her contour is all of her.

The crease. The smooth.

Her body is.
Body positivity and the internet
Tags: Internet, Body Positive, Women, Body Image, Plus Size

Not so long ago I hated every thing about the way I looked, I would stand in the mirror and focus on all my bad points. Which would then make me spend the rest of that day completely inside my own head, over thinking everything I’d seen and convincing myself every one that saw me that day was just staring at all those bad points. it was horrible.

The internet wasn’t around when I was at school so the only thing I had to look up to was all those slim pretty women in magazines and music videos and it did zero for my confidence. And as the years went on it got worse I would hide under baggy clothes never feeling good enough to have a boyfriend. At one time I even got passed a note that said too fat when I finally plucked up the courage to ask a boy out*

It is quite literally soul destroying.

I left school and not so long after along came the wonderful world of the internet, and I thank my lucky stars every day that it did. It does get a lot of bad press let’s face it, influencers get trolled every day, older generation saying younger generation spend too much time on it and let’s not get into the whole Twitter world, but what it has done for me and my body confidence is something I could never have imagined.

I started to see real women, women of all shapes and sizes, women with cellulite, women with stretch marks, women with curves and many many more. I saw how they gave zero fucks about what they looked like and more importantly what others thought of them. I could list all those women but it would be endless there are so many but what they have done for me is something I will always be thankful for. The body positivity movement is something this world so desperately needed.

I now feel I am body positive but that doesn’t mean I don’t have those bad days. We all do, usually when Mother Nature is knocking and we all know what a bitch she is, but those down days are not half of what they used to be and they definitely don’t effect me as long as they used to. I’ve learnt that there is nothing wrong with loving myself and there is nothing wrong with having curves, I now embrace all of me and I cannot stress enough how much the internet has helped this.

My advice to you would be to follow all these women, let them show you just how it feels to not give a fuck.

*side note, the lad was a prick anyway.
Obesity & its Discontents
By: The Introvert
Tags: Feminism, Finance, Body, Body Positive, Equality

I feel for overweight people, and this post is a good primer on some unfair treatment. However, at the risk of sounding insensitive, many non-overweight people feel they are unfairly taxed as a factor of overweight folks. For example, overweight people take up a significantly higher proportion of medical treatment for diabetes, heart disease, and other maladies associated with being overweight. This translates to higher insurance premiums and costs subsidized by healthy non-overweight folks.

In the second, no one ever sympathizes wit the airlines, but it helps to understand their business model. If 200 people averaging 200# each occupy an aircraft, the aircraft will burn 25% more fuel than it would if the average weight was 150#. The airline would also open seats that were double-occupied and sell those tickets.

Let’s say a 300# person boards an aircraft with an overnight bag, and takes one seat. An 90# anorexic person with a 60# bag next to him is only about half the total weight of his neighbor, yet he pays a surcharge for the extra bag. That’s reverse fat-discrimination.
Hey girl! 34 H here!
By: Radhika Tara Kali
Tags: Feminism, Womens Rights, Body Positive, Women, Freedom

Hey girl! 34 H here!

All jokes aside though, I feel you. I grew up hearing the hide your tits line more than I can count.

A crop top? Gasp! Underboob!

Deep V neck? Gasp! Cleavage like nobody’s business!

An obnoxious tank top with large ass arm holes? Gasp! Side boob!

A shirt that fits well? Gasp! Popped buttons!

A t shirt that fits well? Hello, anime doll.

For the longest time, teachers would call my mother and be like oh she needs loose clothing and I would get mad. I mean, it’s skin right? So what if it’s filled in differently than most people’s?

Didn’t find the confidence to rock deep V necks till later though. Or workout in sports bras. When you’ve heard hide the tits line so many times, it’s hard to break that conditioning. Until that one day when reality hits you like a freight train.

Your skin is nobody’s business but your own.

I am glad you let free. It’s very liberating to just say fuck it, Imma rock the tits cuz by gods I wanna and if you have an opinion about it, don’t.

It’s so amazing to finally not care about the eyes on you and only about your comfort.

More power to you, girl.
I’m concerned about this idea of “deserving” a body type.
By: Caroline Hackmeyer
Tags: Body Image, Morality, Body Positive

I’m concerned about this idea of “deserving” a body type. This wording highlights thinking that values certain body types over others and imparts shame on whatever types are out of favor; this seems to run counter to your points about the rights to be seen (in whatever clothing we choose) and take up space (lumps and all) without censorship or mockery. We may not be accepting of our bodies because of their lack of conformity to societal definitions of attractiveness, however I believe it is important to note that putting value judgements on our shape/size/strength does not honor the fact that bodies are shaped by more than willpower — our genetics (as you pointed out), happenstance, access to healthcare, emotional well-being, abuse, etc all affect our bodies. No one deserves the disability they got after being hit by a car or having a traumatic childbirth, no one deserves the extra 100 pounds they carry due to the childhood trauma of food scarcity or sexual abuse. So please, leave the moralizing language about our bodies out of your argument.
Guest Blog by: Alexandria Whitaker ~ Self Love and Body Confidence During/Post Treatment
By: Stupid Cancer Staff
Tags: Stupid Cancer, Cancer, Body Positive, Body Image, Survival

I feel pretty sure in saying that everyone, no matter who you are, what you look like or where you’re from, has dealt with body image issues at some point in their life. For cancer survivors, these totally normal insecurities can be made even worse.

I’ve always enjoyed being active and working out and, when I was diagnosed, was in the best shape of my life. I’m pretty obsessive about my health (I rarely even used a microwave!), so to say I was mad at myself and at my body for being diagnosed with breast cancer at 24 would be putting it lightly. I racked my brain for countless sleepless nights, trying to pinpoint exactly where I went wrong. As I entered into a chemical menopause, endured a tough chemo regimen and had a double mastectomy, I watched my body grow weaker by the day. I saw my long blonde hair fall out in strands, then clumps, before the pain got to be too much to bare and I shaved it off. I watched my tan fade and my skin tone change to a ghostly ashy pale gray. My skin, which I was lucky enough to never struggle with before, broke out like crazy as a result of all the medications I was on. I now have acne scars on my cheeks which weren’t there before. Speaking of scars, I have plenty. The one in the middle of my back from a melanoma scare. The scars on both breasts. The one under my collarbone where my port was placed. The two on either side where my drains were placed after my mastectomy. My thick eyelashes and brows still haven’t rebounded. I looked in the mirror and could barely even recognize the person staring back at me. But you know the craziest thing? I’ve never loved myself or more body more than I do now.

I’m not going to lie — it didn’t happen overnight and it took me a while to get to the place I’m at. I learned early on in my cancer journey that your attitude and your perspective make a world of difference in your experiences. When I felt myself going to a negative headspace, I forced myself to think of a positive take on that very same thought and repeat it to myself twice. For example: “My hair is falling out and I look terrible,” turns into, “The chemo is working. The chemo is working!!” See how that goes?

Even now that my hair is growing back and people don’t automatically see cancer when they look at me (which, truthfully, is whole other weird can of worms…) I’m finding myself more confident than ever before. Sure, my boobs look a little weird and aggressive in most outfits. And yeah, I’ve lost most of my muscle tone. And my body doesn’t respond to workouts like it did before. But…. My body beat cancer! My body survived being pumped full of poison! AND I’m still able to do all the things I enjoyed before! That’s pretty damn amazing. My body has conquered a hell of a lot and it’s turned me into a survivor. How can I NOT love it for that?!

By: Alexandria Whitaker
Limiting your caloric intake to 800 calories a day can be very dangerous over time.
By: Kimrae Ketcham
Tags: Healing, Body Positive, Body Image, Health, Self Love

Limiting your caloric intake to 800 calories a day can be very dangerous over time. After a while, you no longer are losing fat; you begin to breakdown muscle mass. (I am very familiar with this form of self-denial to comply with the flawed theory of “BMI” and my own poor body image.)

Initially, BMI was not intended to predict anything other than trends in general populations. Historically, it was applied to crime-solving, eugenics in WWII, and evolved to the misapplication of the insurance-based definitions of healthy.

The original limited data set of human measurements was based only on French and Belgium populations by astronomer-mathematician, Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet. The “Quetelet Index” was intended only to describe the ‘average man.’ He had no intention of its application beyond globally to the population, not individually. It does not take into consideration the presence of dense muscle mass over fat in training athletes, who happen to weigh more and are very healthy, who generally score high on the scale due to their weight.

What I am trying to say is this: “Please be kind to yourself, and learn to love the intelligent, capable, strong, beautiful woman in the mirror. She deserves to be loved.” A lesson it took me too long to learn.
Call Me A Fat Ass
By: Jess Mather
Tags: Fitness, Diet, Body Positive, Body Image, Fat Loss

Years ago, I got on a call with a woman who wanted me to call her a fat ass and yell at her during her workouts.

I heard in this, please punish me because I deserve it.

My body requires punishment because it’s “wrong”, broken, fat, ugly. Tell me how terrible I am so that guilt and shame fuel my pursuit to dominate my body into submission and skinniness.

I never ended up working with her. I didn’t satisfy her qualifications.

She’s not an anomaly.

This is common. Subtle degrees of this infiltrate our culture to the point where we’ve normalized others telling us what to do with or to our bodies (often to appease somebody else or gain acceptance), even when it feels terrible. We might even ask for it.

We willingly engage in forms of body punishment and destruction towards ourselves, masked as harmless strategies to look thinner, be prettier, or be more appealing.

Yet we wonder why we still struggle to love and respect our bodies.

When we engage in body punishment and destruction, whether subtle or loud, we are wading in dangerous territory. We are either invalidating our physical experiences, or choosing to engage in negative ones because we don’t believe we deserve otherwise. And what we do to ourselves, we often allow others to do to us.

There are layers to this story, because our behaviors overlap and weave into the many experiences we choose or succumb to in our bodies. Your choices matter, your language matters. Your body matters.
No matter how normalized it becomes to sleep around, do drugs, tattoo our skin, and greedily buy…
By: Fake Fake
Tags: Body Positive

No matter how normalized it becomes to sleep around, do drugs, tattoo our skin, and greedily buy whatever catches our eye … America will always be a Puritan culture.

And the #1 tenet of Puritan culture is … suffering is a virtue … therefore success comes from suffering.

This toxic value system looks at any person who has failed and concludes they failed because they were too lazy and weak-willed to make thenselves suffer.

So we do it for them. Just berate them until they accumulate enough emotional suffering to be motivated to succceed.

This works great, in the short term, in the military, where the only goal is to make soldiers fight hard until they die. But the survivors prove, in the long run, that you cannot escape this iron law of emotional physics: For every action of abuse, there will be an equal and opposite reaction of addiction.

Fat people eat because we make them suffer. The more we make them suffer the more they eat. The longer they go without suffering, the longer they go without eating. So the most helpful thing skinny people can do, if we really care about helping (instead of just feeling superior, as if that will protect us from ending up like “them”) …

… is to simply shut the fuck up.
“TOO FAT”, “TOO CURVY”, “ LOSE WEIGHT ” PLEASE !!!!
By: Joann Maria
Tags: Bodyshamimg, Body Positive, Women, Curvy Women, Bodypostivity

“TOO FAT”, “TOO CURVY”, “ LOSE WEIGHT ” PLEASE !!!!

In today’s society, people tend to look more at the outer looks than the inner being and I think we can all agree with that.

In my case , I wanted to be that sleek , pretty , cute girl who has those killer thighs and just flaunts her body but whereas me, I have always been on the fat side a bit ( I mean a lot ), getting teased and feeling insecure at school was the worst but it made me wonder "What is so bad about being fat".

Is it a crime that we were born to be a bit chubby and chunky?

I think people like me out there can agree with me right !! But

Who said fat people can only be teased and can’t achieve things ??

Fat people are some on the amazing ones who stand at great places today .

Just because you cannot wear skinny fit jeans and fit the beauty standards doesn’t mean you can’t achieve something right !!

Yet , we live in a world where people are so mean that whenever we try to take a cup or just lean on the wall. They immediately have a comment saying

"I hope the cup doesn’t break"

or

" I hope the wall doesnt break "

like man how does a wall break .

And the worst part is when your skinniest friend says she becomes fat.

and you mind goes like " WHATtttt”

sometimes it really irritates us and that we just want to give them the evil stare but we always tend to take it cool ! right ladies ??

But , in the end our body is a gift from god . Sometimes we just got to bite the bullet and say " Yes I am fat and that is because a tiny body could not store all my loving personalities ".
Ukweli Uchi- Taking Our Power Back After Body Shaming
By: Charlee Hustle
Tags: Body Positive, Humanity, Body Image, Body Shaming, Cyber Bullying

I have been insecure about my scars ever since I noticed they were there. Even as a little girl I couldn’t wear bikinis, dresses and skirts because I couldn’t risk the world knowing about my secret scars.

I managed to keep them a secret a until I dated a guy for about 3 months a few years ago. He called me perfect and said he loved everything about my body but everything changed immediately after I ended the relationship. He cyber bullied me by harassing me on social media, sending me all sorts of horrible messages calling me ugly names. He didn’t stop there, he shamed me by sending naked pictures of me to people on social media telling them about all my scars calling me disgusting and ugly.

As women, our bodies are always used against us, always! They rape us and say we asked for it by wearing revealing clothing. They call us bitches and hoes and say it’s just Hip Hop or slang.They body shame us for having confidence in the same bodies we are so secretly ashamed of.

On the 9th of August, Women’s Day , Humanity Must Rise had a Body Power photo shoot to create awareness on body shaming and give victims of body shaming their confidence back. This project was photographed in Braamfontein, Johannesburg South Africa and diredted by Oscar Ozzy Nkosi.

‘Ukweli Uchi’ means ‘The Naked Truth’ in Swahili and is dedicated to all women and girls who have been made to feel ashamed of their unique bodies.

I have decided to take back the power used against me! I am no longer ashamed of the beautiful skin I live in, I have decided to love me as I am, no matter what imperfections people see when they look at me.

My body is perfect with all it’s perfect imperfections. Every pimple and scar screams my f(‘$%~&g name! Every stretch mark and tattoo tells a different part of my story.

Remember, no one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

This is Ukweli Uchi!!!

Happy Women’s Month to all my Queens, you are beautiful!

I am a woman I bend, I don’t break!

Thank you for your visit.

xoxo

Charlee