NOO!
NONONO!
NO!
There is no thing such as a summer body!
If you exist during summer and you have a body, then guess what? You have a summer body!
Being thin and slender is not your aim and it shouldn't be!
The world is full of diverse shapes and sizes and that is something to be celebrated- not hidden away or changed.
As we get closer to summer we get crowded by adverts and magazine covers all trying to sell us the 'perfect' body. They tell us to slim down, fill out, tone up, but not too much. The world is full of double standards when it comes to how a person 'should' look and frankly, it's frankly just a load of rubbish.
Perhaps you've seen the
Protein World adverts for weight loss which imply that in order to look good on a beach you have to lose weight and fit their criteria of a 'beach body'. You may have seen their responses to people's criticisms of the adverts saying things like: "why make your insecurities our problem?" Guess what? It is their problem. In fact, this is a GLOBAL PROBLEM.
According to
BeReal: 8 is the average age that girls start dieting and half of men feel bad about their appearance after reading a magazine.
1 in 4 of us feels bad about the way we look.
INSECURITY
It is an issue for everyone. EVERYONE.
We need to come together and give the media a strong message that this is not going to work. The media, advertisers, companies cannot shame us for our natural appearance. You want our money? Then don't make us hate ourselves, and don't make us hate you- like what kind of a marketing strategy is that? HUH?.
Now lets get one thing straight.
By all means, live an active life, exercise, eat healthily, go to the gym and get rock hard abs-
if that is what you want to do. If that is not for you, then rock on! Who cares? Nobody can tell you how to look or how to live your life, so get out there, put on whatever clothes make you feel good and don't let anybody shame you.
It is ALL just a twisted body image that is being portrayed in the media.
It is not healthy.
It is not okay.
Eating disorders and a dissatisfaction of one's body
It's UNHEALTHY
PLEASE
Embrace your body and the way you LIVE
Stay HEALTHY!
Eat whatever you want to eat (except if you're allergic, we don't want that hehe!)
Drink whatever you want to drink
BUT Most importantly, take care of yourself and your body.
Be who You want to be, not who someone forces you to be.
Don't let photos deceive you, it is incredible what can be done in editing
Both of us at Embrace the Light have felt the pressure to look a certain way and that's part of our inspiration for running the blog. To encourage confidence and body positivity, to remind you that you are beautiful!
If you find this hard to believe then we want to challenge you to look in the mirror every day and say, I Am Beautiful. It's truly amazing how your life changes when you realise that you look darn awesome and nothing will change that.
We'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions:
Do you agree with what we said? What do you think should be altered in the media?
Do you think having a summer body is even a thing?!
Confidence.
Light.
Happiness.
Love,
Ayah and Kimmy x
PLEASE NOTE: If you feel you need someone to talk to about the issues raised in this post, please go to one of these links for advice and professional advice.
UK: B-eat
US NEDA
A country by country list of support lines can be found
here, credit to
Together We Are Strong
Disclaimer: This post is NOT sponsored in any shape or form, this is just a topic that we really care about and wanted to write about.
