A Curvy Girls Guide to Self Care

I have struggled with my body image for as long as I can remember. I have always been too big, too loud, too much to exist as I was. 

I could never borrow my friend's clothes at a sleepover or shop in the same sections. 

More than half the women in America are plus-sized, so why do I feel like no one looks like me? 

In a world that tells you to change, I am here to tell you that hating your body will NEVER produce anything positive in your life. Hate will never solve your problems in any scenario but especially the ones you have with your body. 

It has to start with love. This will look different for every single person. I want to stress that there is no quick fix. There is no magic switch that will make you love your body, but below are some of the things I did that have helped me this year.

For 2020 I wanted to start therapy, to understand where my physical health was at, and I wanted to feel overall better.

I defined goals that revolved around my health - mental, physical, and emotional. 

These are the steps I took:

I went to the doctor.

I know this is the last thing you probably want to do. I hated getting on that scale and seeing the number. I hated the look of disapproval on the doctor's face. Sometimes the outright disregard for what I told them about my body. BUT this is a factor in taking care of your body. The tests they want to run, don’t define you, but putting those off isn’t going to help you. 

I got my nails done every month.

This may seem weird, but I knew I felt more confident when my nails were done. Find something small that makes you feel like the badass you are. It could be a certain shade of lipstick, a pair of sunglasses, literally anything that makes you feel good. 

Find what works for you and rock it!

I went to the chiropractor.

Again this seems weird, right? Well, I was feeling a lot of back pain from sitting in my computer chair every day so I went to the chiropractor. They told me my spine had an over curvature and my brain was sitting on my spine. Can you say OUCH!

I now go to the chiropractor 2 times a week. This has helped me create a health pattern of taking care of my body physically in a way that I didn’t dread. For some, this could be taking a walk a few times a week or going to the gym. I want to get to that point, but having these appointments taught me I can fit things into my schedule that take care of my physical body. 

AGAIN - do what feels right to you. Some may have an opinion that this isn’t effective, but I am out of pain, which allows me to put myself more fully into other things in my life. 

I went to therapy.

I put this off for years…I knew I needed to go and process some of my experiences. I knew it would be helpful, but I was scared. I was worried that I would feel invalidated. That my feelings would be too much for one person to work through. I was wrong. It is hard but it is good work. It has made a lasting impact on my life. I can’t wait to share more with you about this in the future. 

I just want you to know that if going to therapy seems scary, acknowledge that feeling, but do it anyway. Find a person you feel connected to and see where it goes. 

Do you know what all of these things had in common? It was my version of taking care of myself. You have to start taking care of yourself. For me, that didn’t mean going to the gym or dieting. That isn’t care to me at this stage in my life. What I did though was understand what was going on with my body and take steps toward health and healing.

If you ever feel discouraged, remember “If Mother Nature didn’t like curves she would have made the world flat.”

Now go take care of yourself reader. We need the best you to help change the world. 

Love, 

Britt