Learning to Love My Mom Bod

I hung out all morning in my swimsuit, or rather, how I’m learning to love my mom bod

Confession: I have never liked the water park.
Fun Fact: I worked at a water park in high school one summer. I sold dip’n’dots. Because I didn’t like the water park, I never took advantage of my employee pass.

These were my excuses for skipping out on the water park:

1. I’m not into water activities.
2. Water slides aren’t that fun.
3. I don’t like hanging out and running around in my swim suit all day.

The truth lies in the last excuse.

Now for the real confession. Are you ready?

I think becoming a mom made me realize I have always struggled with my body image.

Looking back, I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have a flabby tummy, even though I’ve never been larger than a size 6 during post postpartum.

My tummy has always been an issue, but my feelings towards it multiplied after Rowan was born. It took me a year and a half to go down to pre-pregnacy weight. A year and a half.

I know that doesn’t sound too long and I know that saying nine months to grow, nine to lose. But I struggled when I saw family and friends appear to get their pre-baby body back weeks after giving birth. Experts like to say that the media is at fault for the negative body image we have, but I struggled more with social media and to be honest, I still do. How did my friend that gave birth three weeks ago look so good in her swimsuit, while I am just trying to suck the fat in by wearing high-waisted bottoms?

Over the last couple months however, I’ve come to accept my body for what it is at the current moment. I realized that Rowan doesn’t care what I look like in a swim suit, he just wants to have fun. So last week, I threw on those high-waisted suit bottoms and took him to the water park.

Eating Clean, or rather when I ate crap, I felt like crap

The times my body image was the worst, can you guess what I was eating?

CRAP. I ate like crap.

I’ve always been fairly healthy, but I have a nasty sugar addiction and with that came no self-control. So while my meals may have looked and been clean, the pastries at Starbucks, candy in the checkout lane, and the cookies in the pantry always got to me.

When Rowan was 4 months old, I was determined to lose the baby weight and I decided to do the Whole 30. I didn’t finish, I quit mostly because I was scared that I would lose my supply, but I made it a week. What I learned about myself and food during that week, however, started changing everything.

I had already been dairy-free since 2013 give or take. Sometimes, I pay for it (seriously, it’s painful). Sometimes, you just need the real ice cream or the pizza with real cheese or the cheese board while wine tasting. But generally, 90% of the time, I’m dairy free.  So, I was one step closer than most when starting a clean eating journey.

I began to read labels and started to take a good look at the food I was eating and drinking. I began listening to a few paleo podcasts.  And in time, I found myself not buying the pastry at Starbucks when I wasn’t hungry, not picking up a treat to eat on the way home from the store, or eating an entire thing of Costco cookies in a week. My eating is about 80% clean and 20% life. And I never been happier.

Wearing the right clothes or rather, dressing for my body

I’m a 90’s kid who grew up with a hatred of all things high-waisted.

I didn’t jump on the new high-waisted jean trend until October 2016 and I’ve never looked back. They made me look taller and thinner. My favorite pair is Madewell, but I am dying to try some Levis. It’s a plus that high-waisted jeans literally suck in everything.

Even though high waist is everywhere these days, I’ll gladly call them my mom jeans.

I also have tried wearing more form-fitting clothes and paying attention to the fabric I am wearing.

At the end of the day, I have my family and my body image shouldn’t dictate what I do with them.

So my dear mama friend reading this, get in that swimsuit and go hang out with your kid at the water park. You might feel awkward at first, but the laughter and fun will be worth it at the end of the day.