Learning to embrace your body and loving yourself for who you are is no easy task. Regardless of our age, gender, race, or sexual orientation, we all have a multitude of different fixations about our bodies and how we’d go about changing them if we had the chance. Unfortunately for most people, Motherhood is a pivotal contributor to some of our reasoning for disliking our bodies, and in worst-case scenarios, has triggered depressive episodes. However, the truth is that this is shockingly common amongst mothers everywhere, as a study involving women aged in-between 25-34 proves. The study reported that 54% of the women surveyed expressed negative feelings towards their post-partum body image. In contrast, only a few women expressed no change or feelings of happiness towards their bodily changes.
Other surveys speculate that for some women, these negative feelings don’t go away, even three years after giving birth, and that most women fail to regain the level of confidence they had before having children. For most mothers, we’re sure that you’ll agree with this statistic and may have had or still have similar feelings of your own regarding your body after motherhood. However, we need to remember that children leave a permanent mark on our bodies, which time cannot erase. Instead of hating ourselves, we should look at our bodies with awe and celebrate each lump, bump, sag and stretch mark as an achievement for delivering our children into the world. In this article, we’ve developed a list of ways to help you embrace your body after motherhood to help you connect with and love yourself once more.
Don’t Let Negative Feelings Stop You from Exercising
One way to start embracing your body after motherhood is by introducing gentle and regular exercise. Now, one thing that we’re not telling you to do is to exercise so that you can ‘bounce back’ or so that you can ‘beat the mum bod.’ As mothers, we hear this enough in lifestyle magazines and through hashtags on social media, which are hurtful and exist solely to shame women for their post-pregnancy bodies instead of uplifting them.
Instead, exercise for yourself and the good that it does for your body. Endorphins are released when you work out, which triggers a positive, euphoric response in your body and makes you feel happier after physical activity. If you’re nervous about starting, you could start your fitness journey by joining an exercise class run by or aimed at fellow mothers. For instance, this could be yoga, running, swimming, etc., as you’ll be much more comfortable surrounded by like-minded individuals with common ground. Introducing exercise into your life over time will boost your confidence, and you’ll be surprised to find that your post-motherhood body can do a lot more than you think.
Don’t Punish Yourself for Eating
Relationships with food can be complex, and after motherhood, those relationships don’t get any easier. It’s too easy for mothers to punish themselves for eating food and powders deemed ‘bad’ or high in calories. So what, you were running late and only had time to grab a couple of pieces of toast for breakfast? Who cares? The only person that’ll penalise you for this is yourself. It’s important to remember that having something to eat is better than nothing, and as long as you’re fuelling your body nutritiously, then it doesn’t matter.
Especially if you’re a busy, working mother, you’re not always going to have the time to prepare something before work or before the school run. So sometimes grabbing something to go is a lot better than stressing yourself out further by making a snack or meal from scratch. Suppose you struggle to put together a sustainable meal for yourself due to work, childcare, or other commitments. In that case, you could consider meal substitutes in the form of shakes or delicious protein snacks that saves you the hassle of preparing something ahead of time. Head over to eatproteinstore.com to browse a selection of healthy products designed to help working mothers and others alike.
Ignore Magazines, Websites and People That Make You Feel Bad About Yourself
Start to embrace your body after motherhood by ignoring magazines, websites, and people that make you feel bad about yourself. As touched upon in our first point, social media, magazines, and the worldwide web are full of different trending hashtags daily. Some can be positive, but most are harmful and encourage unhealthy and unrealistic expectations of new and seasoned mothers. Instead of praising mothers and their bodies’ post-pregnancy, in today’s society, we get confronted with articles and stories about celebrities’ beating the mum bulge’ or ‘bouncing back from baby number two.’ Instead of pitching ourselves against these social figures, which is fruitless anyway as all bodies and people are different, we should be building each other up and celebrating the trials our bodies go through to bring our children into the world.
Likewise, if someone on your social feed is causing you distress or dishing out unsolicited mum advice that you have no care for. Regardless of whether they’re a friend or family member, if it’s causing you grief and affecting you personally, we encourage you to purge them and keep doing so until everyone who makes you feel pessimistic about yourself or your abilities as a parent is gone. Instead, focus on yourself and don’t compare yourself to others, and remember that no person or publication should have the authority to make you feel inferior.
Remind Yourself That Every Mark on Your Body Is Beautiful
Stretch marks, scars, cellulite, sagging all of these imperfections come with the gift of motherhood, and now for the rest of our motherly lives, we’ll devise unimaginable plots and schemes on how to cover them. Here’s some advice; don’t. Instead of hiding our flaws and investing in costly lotions and ‘miracle’ creams to reduce the appearance of these marks, a much more cost-effective solution is to love them. Change your perspective on your scars, cellulite, and stretch marks by reminding yourself that each tells a story and revels in your strength at carrying a baby (or multiple!) inside of you for nine months. Read stories about how other women embraced their stretch marks and imperfections to get you inspired and ready to love your own.
Don’t Feel Like You Have to Hide Yourself in Baggy Clothing
Self-expression is essential when you’re a mother, and you should be able to wear what makes you comfortable without feeling as though your body needs to be hidden away in tracksuits or pyjama bottoms. Don’t scold yourself because you can’t fit into those pair of jeans that you could squeeze into before baby number two, or strive to get back into them so soon after becoming a mother. You’ll only put unnecessary pressure on yourself, and this will only succeed in making you feel worse about your body. Instead, treat yourself to some new pairs, and don’t be afraid to select tight or at least comfortable items! Just because you’re a mother doesn’t mean that you can’t show off your figure and subject yourself to baggy clothing for the rest of your life. Being comfortable and happy is the prerogative, and that’s all that matters – so buy the dress!
