Body Image

How you feel about yourself. How your self-image affects your self-worth specifically when it comes to your body. Includes your daughters or encouraging other women in the same struggle.

Goodbye Skinny Jeans, This is Why I’m Breaking up With You

Goodbye Skinny Jeans, This Is Why I’m Breaking up With You

Dear Skinny Jeans, I’m breaking up with you. Please don’t be mad. So many others still love you. You have devoted fans everywhere. It’s just, I’m no longer one of them. But today I’m saying goodbye Skinny Jeans. We had a good run, didn’t we? We partnered on so many different occasions, in so many different ways. We went casual-cool, with riding boots, flats, and tennies. We were sophisticated and classy, all dark denim and heels for our date nights and girls’ nights. We went from ripped and rocker to high-waisted and mom-jean-esque. We even had a very unfortunate foray into the Ugg-trend in the mid 2000s. We’ve done it all. But, see, things have changed. I’m different now. I’ve grown. No […]

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5 Ways I Learned to Love My Middle-Aged Body

5 Ways I Learned to Love My Middle-Aged Body

The other day, as I was participating in my daily scroll on social media, a Facebook memory popped up on my feed. It was a heartwarming throwback of me and my youngest when she was just a baby. I looked tired, yes, but also had that new-mom glow as I held my daughter in her “Baby’s First Christmas” outfit. She was three months old and this was, sadly, quite a few years ago. I remember that picture well. We were at my in-laws’ house after church, and it was the first time I had gotten “dressed up” since giving birth. And I remember being wildly insecure about my new, mom-of-three body. I felt frumpy, overweight, and gross. I didn’t want to go,

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The Gospel of Body Image for Today's Woman

What Every Woman Needs to Know About Healthy Body Image

While the beginning of the year is when body image is especially prevalent, every other advertisement or conversation is about what diet to go on to “tame those trouble spots” or how to find a “quick fix” to whatever it is that has been plaguing our conscience regarding our looks. This is the time of year, though, when everything we set out to do and change brings with it questions. Is this really working for us? If so, for how long can we keep it up? Our culture dismisses the idea that the simplest thing might be the best thing for our bodies. We make it so that if you’re not doing something extreme and 100% of the time, and you’re not

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5 Ways I Learned to Love My Middle-Aged Body

5 Ways I Learned to Love My Middle-Aged Body

The other day, as I was participating in my daily scroll on social media, a Facebook memory popped up on my feed. It was a heartwarming throwback of me and my youngest when she was just a baby. I looked tired, yes, but also had that new-mom glow as I held my daughter in her “Baby’s First Christmas” outfit. She was three months old and this was, sadly, quite a few years ago. I remember that picture well. We were at my in-laws’ house after church, and it was the first time I had gotten “dressed up” since giving birth. And I remember being wildly insecure about my new, mom-of-three body. I felt frumpy, overweight, and gross. I didn’t want to go,

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This Is Why I’m so Glad I Gave up on the Perfect Body

This Is Why I’m so Glad I Gave up on the “Perfect Body”

How many women’s fashion bloggers or fitness influencers do you follow on social media? And how many of those women’s bodies are you envious of? Be honest with me. I know for most of us, we see their posts of them rocking some skinny jeans or hanging out in a sports bra and we think, “I would give anything to look like that” or “I wish I had her body.” I mean, come on, they look so great it’s only natural for us to think that. We allow their posts of their picture-perfect bodies to make us feel worse about our own. With every image we see, the worse we feel. It becomes a vicious cycle of constant comparison and dissatisfaction that

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Here’s How to Embrace Growing Older With Grit and Grace 2

Here’s How to Embrace Growing Older With Grit and Grace

When I was working one of my first “real” jobs in my early 20s, my brother invited me to his 21st birthday party. I worked the night shift as a copy editor for a local paper about 30 minutes from his school, so after I finished for the night, I drove up to see him. He was hosting a get-together at a bar where he worked, and as I walked up to the door, the bouncer met me and asked to see my ID. This was nothing out of the ordinary, but when he wouldn’t give it back, I became a little concerned. The bouncer called another employee over to look at my ID then said I wasn’t allowed to go in.

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4 Reasons Why You Need to Ditch the Scale for Good

4 Reasons Why You Need to Ditch the Scale for Good

What metrics do you use for measuring your level of health and fitness? If you use your weight, you may want to think again—the number on the scale is not an accurate metric, and it can actually take away from your health and fitness success. Keep reading because I’m about to give you four reasons why your scale is not your best friend, plus how you should actually be measuring your health and fitness progress! 1. Weight Loss and Fat Loss Aren’t the Same Did you know you can lose weight and not lose any body fat at all? Did you also know you can lose body fat and gain weight at the same time? How confusing! Well, the scale isn’t as

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How to Lose the Scale and Walk Lighter

Forget About the Scale and Be Happy!

How to drop weight instantly! (Not the kind you think.) Enter the scales.  The first time I stepped on a scale was during the dark, life-sucking hole known as middle school. A number popped up and I knew it was calculating something about who I was. It wasn’t merely a number; it was an indicator of my identity. It was fascinating how the number would change according to what I had or had not eaten. I recall finding out what I should weigh for my height through health class. Ehhh…that word, “average.” I hated it and all of its synonyms: usual, ordinary, standard, typical, normal, regular. Who decided what was average anyway? The scale became my master, and the fear of being average, or

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5 Helpful Tips for Loving Your Body the Way It Is

5 Helpful Tips for Loving Your Body the Way It Is

My body shaming started in fifth grade shortly after a classmate made up a “clever” little saying about my breasts. She recruited a group of boys who all chanted for days: “Rachel’s so flat a pancake would be jealous. Flatty cakes, flatty cakes!” Good one, sister. I was 11 years old… of course I was flat. As junior high came into full swing—and then high school—I noticed when friends blossomed as my own adolescent development seemed to lag behind my peers. When I finally started my period at the age of 15, I felt defective for showing up to the puberty party late. Over the years, I’ve abused, neglected, badmouthed, overworked, and shamed my body. Some of my shaming was induced by

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