When did you feel really good about your body?

I was a size four before babies, I remember sitting on a beach worrying if people noticed how fat my arms and legs are. I am now waaaaay bigger but, apparently, in normal range. I am overweight for me. I'm not fit either, but never talk about dieting in front of the dcs, in fact not to anyone..I've never dieted, I found starving much easier.

My mother told me that she, my sister and my DH are all losing weight shouldn't I? I replied that my body has never been anyone's business but mine!!

I would like to lose a stone and will have to do it the hard exercise way.

I love my body. I'm in my mid-fifties, and while I would be last to be picked for anyone's shag team, I no longer care. I'm physically very strong and fit, and it gives me an inner snigger to go on the weights machine at the gym after a man, and up the weights.

I can run for miles across the fields without worrying about rape too, - whatever people say, women in their fifties are statistically less likely to be targetted than younger women, and I feel a sense of physical freedom that I never felt when young.

I think sport in whatever form is the secret of overcoming body hang ups, and more women and girls should be encouraged to take it up.

I only started to like my body this year, whilst on holiday in Spain! I'd been dreading it, putting a bikini on my wobbly pale body and braving the beach was giving me nightmares. But then, I looked around and saw so many woman in bikinis, each one a different body type and I realised that I wasn't judging how they looked, I was just looking IYSWIM? So I realised that the only person judging MY body was ME!

I had a personal hangup about my stomach - wobbly with stretch marks. But, a bit of a suntan seems to have done wonders to my stretch marks, which has been a confidence booster.

I was always the skinny girl growing up, hated that I was flat chested, was straight up and down with no hips or bum, but now I am nearly 2 stone heavier than I used to be as a young un and I am definitely looking better for it. Woman are meant to have curves and now that I finally have some (finally! yay!) I am hanging on to them.

I think I've just grown up and realised that so what if I don't look like a Vogue model - I'm married to a lovely man who loves me, have two wonderful children and a cat that likes to settle on my wobbly belly at night. Worrying about what my body looks like is like worrying about the weather - pointless, just dress appropriately and you'll be fine!

I feel great about my body! but then, I still play all sorts of active games lol.

Sorry, just to clarify - it has given me food for thought about the possible reasons behind why I run myself down and find myself falling short.

Have been reading far too many threads tonight and came across this thread.

This from Blindcavesalamander really pulled me up short:

"And, I've just thought, in the same way that anybody you love is beautiful to you, seen with love, then it must be lack of love for ourselves that makes us unable to see our own beauty."

It makes so much sense when you think about people who would not be called 'classically beautiful', but who are beautiful to you because you love them and they are lovely. Thank you Blindcaves, that has really given me food for thought

Not at all keen on my post pregnancy tummy - wrinkly and floppy but I felt fantastic whilst giving birth and felt good when I exercised and felt strong. Heavily pregnant now and like having a good reason for a sticking out tum. But think really I feel at my best when I am feeling strong and fit - regardless of looks. Still, a bit of mascara and a gin and tonic helps too.

i loved my body when I was pregnant (though not for the first sixteen weeks as I was so sick both times). I felt beautiful then. And I remember times of confidence when I was young, sunbathing in the nude, .....feeling slim and tight. Now my belly is so flat and floppy and revolting. It's a really wierd thing that I love so many kinds of beauty in other people, especially as I love photography, and the people I always wish I could photograph are people who look interesting, unusual and fascinatingly attractive to the eye in non conformist ways, faces and bodies that are more like a poem than an advert... e.g. a very old local lady with no teeth who is incredibly tiny and MESMERISINGLY beautiful, like a magical woodland animal (and on the bus I notice everybody admiring her). I would paint her if I could. I would prefer to photograph her than any model.
And yet.
And yet.
Why can't I love myself so freely? Is it the desire to be sexually attractive??? And yet I don't have such limitingly conformist views on men's attractiveness. I don't need a man to have a model's body to turn me on. But I'm ashamed for people who knew me when i was younger and slimmer to see me now. The fucked upness gets inside you when your sense of self is growing I suppose.
And by the way, you all look beautiful to me.
And, I've just thought, in the same way that anybody you love is beautiful to you, seen with love, then it must be lack of love for ourselves that makes us unable to see our own beauty.

Interesting thread. I hardly thought about my body past what it could do for me until my late 20's. This undoubtedly was down to being heavily into sport and training 8 times a week while I was a teen/student until mid 20's really. I could eat anything, drink anything, I was strong, very fit. What my body looked like was immaterial, it was how it performed which concerned me. The only thing I really thought about at this time was injuries and the fact that I was round shouldered (not helped by the sport I was doing!).
In addition my parents were brilliant with body-image. They just never mentioned it. The first time my mother went on a diet was when she was 70! My dad never has (although him and my brother have the sort of bodies/metabolism which means they never get fat and you should see the amount of food my brother eats!).

Once I stopped training I still ate the same portion sizes and drank too much and so the weight came on.

However, I am currently 8 months pregnant and actually feel my body is bearing up fairly well for a 40-yr old. I would like to lose some weight once the baby is born, but hoping that breast-feeding plus toddler will help with that. Would also like to take up my sport again as a participant rather than a coach. I've always felt best when fit, regardless of weight (and also had more energy).

• like my body that is

I've never got the whole blonde= stunner

I dont think I ever will tbh

I'm alright in my own skin mostly. I think it helps massively to never read 'womens' magazines, or own a full length mirror. I just don't pay much attention to it. Although, I did find my first grey pube last month and had a moment of panic, but that's more about the rapidly approaching grave than appearance per se

Thanks Sybil

Congratulations on your pregnancy!

I think mine is lovely even if no one else does I don't give a hoot, its mine! I'm pregnant now and feel delighted with my body.

Mine is all right, most of the time.

Mostly I don't want to be 80 and look back thinking that I spent large parts of most days thinking about my packaging.

there are some amazing quotes in this thread.

I particularly like 'the body is about doing not being. it is vehicle for life not a picture.'

and
'my body is neither "me" nor "not-me". It's not a shell, it's who I am and there's much more to me besides'

I've never been comfortable in my own skin. My mum is a lovely lovely kind sweet woman but has spent her whole adult life counting calories, trying different diets, exercise videos, faddy fitness equipment etc that the image of imperfection has rubbed off :( My mum is and always has been a size 10 ffs. She still won't go to the swimming baths because 'people will see her' and that to me is incredibly sad.
I'm not that bad; I will go swimming and to the gym, and when I'm all dressed up I think I look killer (proper hourglass, 36G size 14) and DH says he loves my body, but naked- I don't even like to look at it. I find myself looking at my wobbly belly in the mornings to see if it's gotten any smaller. I used to life model when I was 19-20 and looking back, my body was amazing. So why did I feel about it then as I do about it now? Gah.

it the opposite of all those adverts that encourage us to examine ourselves with a critical eye searching for any imperfections.

Indeed :)

I loved those BUPA "You're amazing" commercials. Even a damaged body has incredible abilities.

Because I wore unsuitable contact lenses for several years, my eyes did that vasculation thing where they grow extra blood vessels to route more oxygen to the eye. How clever of them!! When I had one ovary removed, the other took up double egg-releasing and hormone generation without missing a beat.
BOF wrote about having psoriasis - do you know what that is? It's your skin making new cells at 10x the normal rate. Even that's fucking amazing! Just now, my arm's healing from an oven burn. Every morning another half inch of burn has disappeared. It's like being Jack Harkness in slow motion

whenever i realise that the body is about doing not being. it is vehicle for life not a picture.

the action can be something v simple like jumping over a stream, getting a lid off a jar, running or cycling up a hill, hammering a nail in in 2 strikes.

by realising that it is not only is it good enough for the all things i want to do, but often it surprises me with what it can do. it the opposite of all those adverts that encourage us to examine ourselves with a critical eye searching for any imperfections.

I find it fascinating that so many of us have liked our bodies best when pregnant. I'm another one. I like my body now as it has carried my daughter, birthed her well, and fed her well. So whenever I feel grumbly about my body's appearance, I remember that. Also, I have discovered that babies can tone your arms without you noticing.

I wish I had whiter teeth and less fillings though.

Me too re the fillings- just call me Metal Mickey

It's really unfair as well as my sister has none and eats loads of sweets

Now, in my 30's and post 2 children.

Twice I have disliked my body - when I was a stone heavier in my 20's from drinking too many pints of beer and just after I finished breastfeeding dc1. I was too thin and had empty boobs.

I have never bought magazines of any description. I have never owned scales.

I wish I had whiter teeth and less fillings though.

I am about as happy with my body right now as I've ever been.

I spent my teens being lovely and thin, but since leaving my teens, my weight has yo-yo'd, with more time spent being heavier than lighter.

Post-teens, I was at my lightest in my early 20s, working in a bar, on my feet all day, barely eating, clubbing by night and of course all that that entails, if you know what I mean...

After having DC1 the weight fell off me, thanks to breastfeeding. I totally was not expecting it, and quickly became complacent - naturally it all crept back on and by the time I wa pregnant with DC2 I was back to my usual size 16.

Fast forward 9 months and I was determined to 'harness' breastfeeding as a weight-loss aid again.

DC2 is now 13 months old. Our combined weight now, at 13 months of age is 18 kilos less than our combined weight the day before I went in to be induced. I've lost 30 kilos since that day - roughly 60 pounds. 4 kilos of that was DD, of course.

I am so happy with my body right now. It is not perfect. I have a flat tummy when clothed, but naked, it is saggy and baggy thanks to two big babies. My thighs could be slimmer. But I am 5"9' and a size 10/12. I never thought I would see a 12 again, let alone a 10.

It hasn't been easy. I mean it has in the sense that it's been a simple matter of eating less and exercising more, but it's taken dedication sticking to it. I walk every single day and run every other day. I no longer eat whatever i fancy whenever I fancy it. At the age of 37 I have finally acknowledged that I will never be one of those people who can eat what they want and remain slim. It is one or the other, and in all honesty, being slim is a higher priority than a few minutes of bad-food over-indulgence.

I feel great about myself. I'd love to lose another 5 kilos, and hope that once I get down to that point I can be happy with what I see and all it quits. In all likelihood I will still focus on the flaws. But still, even with those flaws I'm so proud of myself and feel better about myself than I probably ever have.

As someone else said upthread - I look back on photos of myself when I was slim and kick myself for not appreciating it more. Right now I am appreciating it, because even if I csn still see flaws I know in my heart of hearts that I don't look at all bad.