Rocking the Mom Bod!

Hey there my lovelies,

Welcome back yto my Blog!

I have been considering this post for a long time, but I think I had to put it down in black and white especially since for the past few months I have been bombarded with people trying to sell me products to loose weight!!! At first I was was like I must look like I gained a lot of weight but then I was like wait a minute this is not happening on my watch, especially now that I have taken the necessary precautions to see whether this gain was due to something ulterior other than the normal course of the woman’s body!

However it’s no secret that pregnancy and motherhood can drastically alter even more a woman’s body. Weight gain, stretch marks, saggy breasts…there are countless ways your body might change after having kids. It’s true that some of us weren’t exactly slender pre-tot, and others somehow leave the hospital weighing less than before getting pregnant. But I have yet to meet a mom who can’t instantly tell you what “flaws” her body possesses now, that it did not before. Here are mine: I wear a larger size jeans than I did pre-baby and I have a tummy pooch which has gotten more prominent lately. 

But why do we have to look at stretch marks, scars, and yes, added weight, as flaws? We wouldn’t have them if we had not done the single coolest thing women can do. WE CREATED ANOTHER HUMAN, people! So let’s embrace the bodies that made that possible. Let’s come together to Rock Our Mom Bods! Ok, so I’m not saying that we should all give up on our fitness goals or stop trying to eat healthier. I’m still going to work on being able to walk further and excerise more. I still want to try to drop a couple sizes and I definitely need to work on eating fewer Kit-Kats, but I have learned not to hate on my body while I do it.

Luckily, we are in an age of women empowering women (or so I hope at this point). I have seen new hashtags and posts emerging all the time that encourage us to love our bodies for what they are. #bellyjelly and #weartheshorts are two I keep coming across. They both tell us to be proud of our bodies and not to hide behind flowy shirts and long pants just because society dictates that we should hide our extra fluff and dimples. That’s awesome, and those are things every woman should feel comfortable doing, and I am please rest assured that I am definately not talking to just moms here.

The body positivity movement—which preaches acceptance and health, slams fat-shaming, calls out “thin privilege,” and celebrates diversity and “realness” over diet-and-photoshop-assisted notions of “perfection”. It also uges the much-needed post-postpartum body acceptance (as opposed to immediate post-postpartum bounce-back!!). Former model Chrissy Teigen has parlayed honesty into a new career, posting pictures of her stretch marks on Twitter with the caption: “Mom bod alert.” Beyoncé, too, joined the revolution: After the birth of her twins in 2017, Queen Bey spoke lovingly about her so-called FUPA (fat upper pubic area) to Vogue last year: “To this day, my arms, shoulders, breasts and thighs are fuller. I have a little mommy pouch, and I’m in no rush to get rid of it.” So let me keep it real here okay, in 2021, we should normalize posting unedited photos of postpartum bodies. Anything that shows women bodies in all their variety is to be welcomed in my world and that is something we all should make an effort to make clear and try and change.

So my fellow mama’s and not, how can we take this a step further? How can we truly #RockTheBod – Mom or otherwise?  Simply by wear the shorts, or the dress, or the halter top. Whatever it is that makes you happy and comfortable, just wear it! And let your child and your peers hear you say things like “I love the way this makes me feel” or “I like how this matches my eyes”, rather than “This is too tight on my stomach”. 

Don’t let your child/peers see or hear you obsess about your weight or size. Yes, of course, if those are areas that you are working on, continue to do so. But be positive about it. “Mom has worked really hard to look and feel this good” is a way better impression to leave on your child then letting them see you frowning at numbers on a scale. 

Put a positive spin on things others might think of as flaws. If your child points out stretch marks or asks about your c-section scar, acknowledge the miracle behind them – they wouldn’t exist without your children! Grey hairs? They show how much wiser you have become and all the knowledge you have to share with your kids. A little extra fluff? Maybe it’s so you can provide a soft lap to sit on.

Regardless of how you decide to go about it, let your children see you loving the body you have. It is the body that brought them into this world. It is the body that has allowed you to take care of them.

As for me, I’m 46 years old with an 8-year-old son. I’m 5’1″, 59kgs on a good day, and I wear size 12 jeans. But I try to make sure my son sees me loving my body and sees me rocking my mom bod and truthfully I am loving where this new level of self-love is taking me and what it will do to my son!

You got this my lovelies,

Until next time,

Disclaimer : Photos used in this post are credited to Pinterest and have been used for the purpose of this post. Empowered photo credited to Mtlatv Media House DO NOT crop, edit, use or change said photo in anyway without their express permission. ©2019 MTLATV Media HOUSE