On holiday next week and I’m fat

[Holidayregrets]

Aargh. Please can anyone make me feel better? Going on a holiday of a lifetime next week, and I just didn’t stick to the holiday diet. I’m fat 😭

This is going to be an epic trip, with me and DH visiting our DD in Australia. Lots of beautiful hotels booked with pools (we travel around a lot after seeing her), and I’m passable in a cover up, but my bikini bod is a disaster. I had planned to lose weight but didn’t do the diet.

Can anyone gives me some mantras or words of wisdom to look past this?

Instead of being excited I’m just so disappointed in my lack of effort and could bloody kick myself.

I love tankinis and also swim skirts even though I've heard them described as frumpy on MN. Personally I wear them because I feel like I'm displaying my fanny in a regular swimsuit but they have the bonus of covering a multitude of sins.

If you’ve got slimmer arms and legs, wear things like dresses to show them off.

You can get swimsuits that are like dresses that come out at the hips and give you more of a slimmer looking tummy.

I assumed you were going to say you were twice the size that you are!

You are more than your dress size.
And frankly if someone else's biggest problem is how you look, then good for them. Most people have plenty of other stuff to worry about.

No one cares. If they do their opinion isnt important anyway. Cover up because it's important to protect yourself from the sun, not because you are too large for a bikini. If you must wear a bikini then a bikini body is just that, your body in a bikini.

I haven't worn a bikini in years but on my last holiday I saw all sorts of shapes and sizes rocking a bikini - some of them made me feel positively thin! 🤣
However, like a PP said I'd forgotten all them 10 minutes later.

Same! Last time I wore bikini was like 19. Even as slim I had tankini with shorts or swim skirts.
I was eying up some of the more coverage swimsuits but they feel too much fabric to me and not comfy for me to swim in

Think back to all the holidays you’ve ever been on before. Can you remember what any of the random strangers on the beach or by the pool looked like? Most likely not, because you were too busy focusing on yourself, as others will be too busy focusing on themselves to think about or judge you.

There are worse things to be in life than fat. How lucky you are to have a loving family and be able to go on an adventure of a lifetime. I promise you that when you’re on your death bed you won’t be looking back and thinking about how fat you were on this trip.

Have the best time.

I’m away in 2 weeks time OP and could have written half of your words myself (with the exception of going to see my daughter as I was blessed with 4 boys who all live with me 😂).

I’ve put on 3 stone since having my little boy in August 2023 and feel awful, huge and ugly. I’m now a size 20/22 top and 18 bottom whereas I was a size 16 on both before pregnancy, so I feel absolute trash… not comfortable, disgusting and awful in myself. I struggle to lose weight, but had been a size 16 for 2 years before pregnancy. So wishing I had got onto my diet and stuck to it (albeit hard with my health conditions) over the last 6 months!

Have an amazing time visiting your daughter xx

Nobody will notice or care. Enjoy.

All this advice is good. Wear clothes that give you joy... lovely colours etc and a chiffon cover up for poolside... Genuinely worth looking at some of the influencers on Instagram etc who are a bit more curvy. Veronica Freunde for example, who is just magnetic and has a lovely smile... I realised she's fatter than me but she looks so much more cheery, all you think of is how sexy and gorgeous she is!! With this particular lady I also found that she had a really tough life with a disabled husband and it made me feel ashamed about how stressed I got about my flabby tummy!

Are you actually overweight bmi wise?... I don't think anyone will care!

This 1000% do not give it a second thought. Have a great holiday.

I can’t thank you all enough for these posts. You have really helped me reframe a bit. I don’t really care what other people think of me, it is how I think about myself and about my confidence.

I’m about to give birth to DC3, after which I will be 3 stone overweight (again).

I always start off a size 12 but finish exactly the same weight, to the pound, afterwards.

I have also booked to go to the Maldives 4 months postpartum- I will still be fat, I will not look fabulous in a bikini- BUT I will be in the Maldives with my DH and 3 gorgeous children. I know which one I’ld rather! 🥂🏝️

Yes.. Sometimes you just want to feel good in your own skin.

You never know... You could lose the weight on holiday! I never got my bikini bod but someone lost weight in Turkey. Must have been the movement.

Mantra: I have a body. I am wearing a bikini. Therefore, I have a bikini body.

Don’t go climbing any walls … seriously just have a blast! Happiness is a frame of mind and not a dress size ❤️

Honestly if people are worried about bodies, they’re worrying about their own and not yours. I for one love seeing a real body on holiday. If it were me glancing at you, I’d be thinking “yes girl!”

When you get back from holiday, would you like to look back on the amazing time you had, or do you want to look back on how you were worried about how you looked the whole time…
draw a line under this, have an amazing time and when you get home regroup on weight loss and work out a way that’s sustainable for you (only if you do truly need to lose weight)

In a bikini/ swimsuit you're generally either in the water or lying down. In the water your body is hidden and lying down flattens any lumps and bumps. And you can breathe in on the way to the water. And run into the water so you're just a blur!!! Sorted! 😁 Enjoy your holiday!😎

https://tinybeans.com/just-wear-the-damn-bathing-suit/

@Holidayregrets read this.

16 is the average size in Australia so you'll be smaller than half of the women - not that it matters!

Have the time of your life!

@Holidayregrets - sorry I don’t think that link worked. Try this one https://www.mother.ly/life/motherly-stories/wear-swimming-suit-essay/

Go for an elegant well cut supportive and probably pricier one piece, some gorgeous wraps and beach dresses, big hat and sunnies. A vintage 40s/50s style can work wonders.

A swim dress is also a possibility.

Life’s too short!

When you are dead your body will rot or burn. Your soul will live forever in the minds of those that love you and it’s your soul that is going on this trip handily encased in flesh for safety :)

Food for thought indeed.