Curve Loading

Body Positivity and Confidence part 2

You’ve heard of ‘carb loading’ well I want to introduce you to ‘curve loading’. A little thing I made up. A bit of a giggle and kind of an F you when people say anything about what food I’m putting in my mouth. A girl needs to keep her curves maintained for heavens sake. If I want to eat a 6 pack of donuts then gosh darn I’m going to, geez I don’t do that every day so shut your judgy mouth Karen. Please don’t make me be held accountable for my actions, donuts make me weak at the knees. So, keep your opinions of my eating habits to yourself. That would be great, cheers.

Now, in no way do I encourage unhealthy eating as a way of getting curves {Balanced diet and exercise always factor in}. Everything in moderation. Be smart about what you are eating. Treats are fine, takeaway is fine, in moderation. That’s the key…. moderation! Yes, I eat donuts but not every darn day, and yes I totally ate a 6 pack one day. You know those ones you get at Coles with the coloured icing and sprinkles, omg delicious much. That was one time. One time!!!

I don’t know about you but I actually get cravings for healthy food more than I ever do for unhealthy foods. I love going to those hipster kinda cafes with the retro mismatched furniture that make unusual and ultra healthy delicious food. Omg so good. And now I’m hungry, gosh darn it. I’m no dietician so that’s about all I should say about the food side of things. However next time your eating a hotdog, burger, a salad, dessert or even a donut, any food really, take a pic and hashtag #curveloading.

Have you ever had one of those body scan thingys done? If you are going to get one done…. Please keep in mind those scans can not test fitness levels. I had one done and it was not a good experience (More due to the person doing the scan). After getting the results it put me in such a negative mind frame and took me a week to snap out of. I’d been working out pretty intensely for months and was fitter than ever. I was feeling so good about my workouts and my body. I felt fit and healthy but this cut me right down. The lady that did the scan didn’t know me and had no idea of my fitness level or what foods I was eating. All she looked at was how I matched up and compared to 100 other women the same age and height as me. She proceeded to tell me that in order to be healthy I needed to loose 20-30 kilos. I was shocked. 3 years of working on loving my body and she’s telling me that staying the way I am is not healthy. Loosing that much weight would put me back to my teenage/early 20s weight. Keeping in mind right now I’m a size 12 Aus (sometimes 14, depending on the style). That’s a huge amount of weight to get rid of. I was devastated and it made me want to give up on everything I’d worked so hard to achieve.

Not only would loosing that huge chunk of weight be a massive and lenghty process (of course doable) but what would my body end up looking like. Would I then be faced with loose skin and saggy boobs. Then I’d be facing surgery to repair that. Not to mention my mental health. Oh and all my costumes and pretty dresses wouldn’t fit any longer, hehe I know huge problem. I actually told her I was happy being curvy and this woman still stood there telling me that being happy just as I am was wrong. What the f@#king f@#k!!!! My husband actually said (jokingly…. I think…. yeah, yeah totally joking, he loves me) that he would divorce me if I lost that much weight. He sure does like my curves and big booty.

Thank the heavens my trainer pulled me aside and explained that the scan was only done to track my progress from then til a month down the track and that was it. A bit of motivation to train harder. She also explained that the scan can not test fitness levels and that I was extremely fit in comparison to many other women who are ‘healthier’ than me. Them being thinner and therefore being deemed healthier according to this scan. This did make me feel better but the hurt was still there. I didn’t tell this woman I wanted to loose weight or that I was unhappy with my body but she felt it necessary to tell me anyways. Lady all I wanted was to know how much muscle to fat ratio I had so I could see how well my workouts were doing. Just the print out of my scan to give to my trainer and a bit of an explanation of the findings would have been sufficient. No need to body shame me.

Shower shoot in my Pichitcha Gym shirt back when I did Muay Thai…. yeah I did that.

Larger people can be fit people. Just because you have some extra padding on your bones does not mean you are unfit. Same as being thin does not mean you are fit or healthy for that matter. Have you heard the term ‘skinny fat‘. Yep that’s a thing. Look it up. Saying all this, we all need to remember that you can’t judge a book by its cover. I may not have an athletes body but I’m pretty fit. I work out, I dance, I eat reasonably healthy, I don’t smoke and barely drink (Light weight over here) but a body scan will tell you I’m over weight and therefore deemed unhealthy.

What’s more important, our mental health or our physical health. This is a hard one. I guess it depends on the individual. For myself I find that when I feel good about myself I want to treat my body right. I want to eat healthy and workout. Loving my body as it is, puts myself in to a positive mind frame and inadvertently looking after it better. My body has birthed 2 babies and is pushing rather close to 40 and boy do I look darn good.

It’s taken me so long to love my curves, flabby upper arms and thick ass thunder thighs that rub together (still trying to love the cellulite though). Omg how bad is that bloody chub rub. You know for years I thought I was the only one dealing with that, turns out that’s super common. Who would of thought. Always having to wear my sexy bike shorts, that I’ve named my ‘pantaloons’, under dresses and skirts so I can walk around in comfort. Not overly sexy but sure feels better than that chafe.

I’ll be damned if anyone tries to make me question my body again. Only I can say I’m unhappy, only I can decide what I eat and how much, only I can make the decisions about my body and lifestyle. You don’t like what you see, look away. You do not need to inform me of your opinions unless I ask for them. Keep your mouth zipped shut. I’m a happy, healthy curvy girl, deal with it.

Your journey to self love, body positivity and confidence is an ongoing progression. Learning to love what you see in the mirror, flaws and all takes time. Little by little you will get there. Don’t let anyone try to take that away from you, especially the Karen’s of the world and their judgy unwanted opinions about the shape or size of your body. Eat the cake (or donut) and enjoy it, just don’t eat a whole cake everyday. Remember moderation. Praise be to curve loading.

Love Delza xoxo

^{*please note that everything I write about comes from my own personal experiences and the opinions are strictly my own.}