Postpartum is a ride, Ronan Keating was right, life IS a rollercoaster, just gotta ride it 🤡
I’ll be honest, I had flitting thoughts around weight gain in pregnancy, this is the first time I have intentionally gained weight since losing 85kg and maintaining that for a decade. I noticed my thoughts drawn towards other opinions of me as I went through the process of growing my baby…
I didn’t give into these thoughts, nor do they consume me anymore.
It’s been the first time my hunger has been out of my control since my early twenties of squashing my feelings with food.
It’s been the first time my body has changed in ways that, at times, felt uncomfortable.
It’s been the first time I have had to overhaul what I am wearing because day to day things no longer fitted me.
It however was also the first time my body was celebrated more than I liked. Whilst we all love a compliment, during pregnancy they were never compliments;
“You look so neat”
“Your all bump”
“You haven’t gained much weight”
All emphasis was on my body. From strangers, friends, family, peers, comments on my body.
Is this the most important thing about me?
Is my body my entire worth?
Luckily 33 yr old Rebecca knows far better.. No and No!
Postpartum is worse,
My body is STILL commented on.
“Are you dieting again now?”
“How much weight did you gain”
“Do your old clothes fit yet”
🤡
WHY ARE WE SO CONSUMED BY WOMENS BODIES….
Because friends, its a societal conditioning, because it’s everywhere you look, in the media, in marketing, we’ve grown up in an environment where women have been under scrutiny for years.
Now we have people associating health to body sizes and weight. Its reductive and so far removed from the truth.
People dieting to simply fit in, squashing their relationship with food and instead chasing a false ideal boxed up in fat loss.
I firmly maintain that the majority of people who are intentionally pursuing fat loss actually should be investing in their food relationship and body image first.
Instead of dieting from a place of guilt, shame, food avoidance.
Dieting from a place of acceptance, inclusive, imperfection.
Because shockingly, fat loss is more than just a calorie deficit.
Fat loss is temporary, but your food relationship is forever.
It’s ok to want to diet, it’s ok to want to change your body, it’s just not ok to do so from a place of all or nothing, disordered eating patterns, or to chase confidence you believe comes from a smaller body.
It does not. Especially if you have zero acceptance.
Without body acceptance you will struggle with maintaining any behaviour, especially if that behaviour is currently to control your body.
Sure you may be smaller, but being mentally consumed by food, by your body, meticulously trying to control yourself and be perfect is not hEaLtH.. Even if some fitness influencer promotes it is.
Sometimes I feel that the fat loss industry fails to take into account the long-term implications of dieting.
And no, dieting is not “bad” and diets don’t “all fail”
But dieting, is not without risk.
Bringing your calories below your required intake, intentionally, is an intervention.
And interventions are not without risk.
And for some, the risks are higher…
I will not be dieting PP (just yet), despite gaining 7kg because that would come with a risk for me, being wildly tired (you are NOT more tired than I am, soz hun) riding emotions each day, navigating a full time role as a Mum alongside running my business, managing a social life, and maintaining my identity, if I was to consider pulling my intake lower I threaten my emotional state, my food relationship.
And for what? A temporary diet to bounce back….
I am far healthier right now despite my weight.
Here we support the risks, we invest in your food relationship, we give you the tools to successfully diet and acknowledge when that is right for you. Not right to “fit in”, we support your body acceptance and body confidence. We help you maintain a live of food freedom and body autonomy. We break away from diet culture narratives and have you feel peaceful in yourself.
That could look like fat loss right now for you, or it may look like addressing your food relationship to embark on fat loss.
Either way our process screens you to get you the best outcome.
Its honest, ethical and protective.
Most people have reservations on their food relationship, believe fat loss is the answer, which is why I have a resource here for you to understand how without a stable food relationship you will never have a sustainable fat loss phase.
Enjoy
Rebecca x
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