From the countless magazine covers plastered with waif models to web ads oozing with the next revolutionary weight-loss hack, it’s hard to get away from the cultural narrative that screams “skinny is BETTER” especially when you are dealing with a postpartum body.
Reportedly, “a total of 75 percent of all American women endorse some unhealthy thoughts, feelings or behaviors related to food or their bodies”…and those are just the ones who admitted to it in a survey.
If we’re being honest with ourselves, we’ve ALL probably had those thoughts at some point in our lives.
In the era of Photoshopped thighs and girls contracting every-eating-disorder-under-the-sun, it’s become quite the trend to champion body-positive thoughts and self-acceptance through social media.
We’ve ALL seen the memes.
“I’m so Flaw-some”…
And “Imperfection is beauty”…
Those quotes look all adorable when packaged in their Pinterest-perfect graphics, but to what degree do we actually believe them?
Particularly after having children, it’s not uncommon for a woman’s body confidence to plummet to an all-time low.
Your tight abs are replaced with post-baby flab and your once supple skin now bears the marks of tiger-striped stretch marks.
How’s that for feeling attractive?… Particularly when it comes to pleasing the man who fell in love with the once-upon-a-Barbie-bod version of you.
Well for Mum on the Run, Laura Mazza, that’s something she’s finally starting to be at peace with after warring for years over her fading looks. But what’s most beautiful is her husband’s response to her insecurities about “the body he didn’t fall in love with.”
In a viral Facebook post, Laura bares her heart about the wonderful man who looks past her postpartum body full of stretch marks and straight into the soul of the mother who bore his babies:
“This isn’t the body you fell in love with.”
I said to him.
The body he fell in love with was toned, it had muscles, there were no stretch marks on my belly, none on my boobs, no gut from muscle separation.
The body he fell in love with fit into tight jeans, could walk into a shop and grab any size and walk out, knowing it fit.
This body now couldn’t shop at those stores, and mostly wears leggings. His body stayed the same, but mine changed in every way. It isn’t fair…
I stood in front of him, exhausted and broken, the tears welled in my eyes, “this isn’t the body you fell in love with.” Then he said, “You’re right. It isn’t the body I fell in love with.
Instead it’s a body that grew our children, it fed our children, it comforted our children, it made life. Your body is the one I fall in love with every day.
I didn’t know what love was until I saw this body and found out all it could do, so thank you.”
Do not be ashamed of what you have, or what your mum body looks like, there’s plenty of time to give up cake in the future, for now, enjoy the moments you have, and enjoy the fact that you have made something that is worth every stretch mark and every dimple.
If you needed a reminder, this is it, this body you have now, its worth every bit of love and more.
Laura’s words of encouragement are a powerful reminder that the body we have IS worth loving… And moreover, it is NOT infused with the kind of beauty that lasts.
“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.” –Proverbs 31:30
Share this inspiring message with a woman who needs to hear these wise words today. I know I did. ❤️
