All posts tagged: Body Image

Living in a Bikini When You Don’t Have a ‘Bikini Body’

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One of my biggest trepidations about going travelling, especially to Thailand where I am now, was my body. I’ve spoken previously on the blog about rejecting the media’s portrayal of the perfect female form, and I do stand by that. It’s just hard to wash away 20 years of body neuroses in an instant. I went travelling right after Xmas. With the Christmas weight of a girl who knew she wouldn’t be home for a long time. I honestly thought I’d lose weight in India due to Delhi belly but sadly/gladly the food was so tremendous I gained weight! Even a bad case of food poisoning didn’t make a dent in my behind. And so the time came to shed the layers and get into beach life in Thailand. Honestly the first time I put in a bikini I had a nervy spasm. You know when you look at your body and think ‘who even is that?’. Inevitably when you’re in a tropical paradise there will be beautiful lithe women who make you feel inferior, …

6 Alternatives to a ‘Beach Body’

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The term ‘beach body’ has had a lot of bad press recently. It all started last summer with Protein World’s bikini-clad campaign and culminated in Women’s Health banning the phrase. Now, I don’t know why that particular ad started the backlash, because it’s something anyone who has ever bought any women’s magazine ever will have seen a million times before. In and of itself, the saying ‘beach body’ is not offensive at all, but the expectation that all us mere mortals should be 5’10”, beach blonde, long-legged, big-titted, with an ass like Kim Kardashian, abs like Jessica Alba and Jennifer Aniston arms is so overwhelmingly unachievable. Not to mention we all need to have completely hairless bodies, with no excess fat (except on the aforementioned ass and tits) the colour of molten gold that don’t sweat… enough already. Lets’s look our bests, yes, but in an inclusive, mentally healthy way. With that in mind, here are my six alternatives to that impossible ‘beach body’. 1. A HUGE F*CKING SMILE This is so cliché and I …