As LuAnn moved into her second trimester, her body changed quickly and she suddenly felt sloppy and fat. To her it seemed that from her boobs to her belly she was just a series of fat rolls. She’d never been a thin girl. She’d always been more curvy and voluptuous, but this was just too much in LuAnn’s eyes. How was she going to feel good about herself and how she looked when she looked like this?!
For a while, LuAnn felt really insecure about her appearance. Then two things happened. One, LuAnn got to thinking, “What if I have a daughter inside my belly? What am I teaching her if I am judging my self-worth based on the size of my belly?” And, two, she had a friend tell her she was so lucky because her ankles weren’t swelling at all. This inspired a new approach for LuAnn. She had been so busy lamenting about how her abdomen looked that she completely overlooked how great her legs looked. Her new wardrobe plan was to accentuate her legs!
The next day, LuAnn went shopping and purchased more skirts and dresses with interesting hemlines that would bring attention to her legs. And, she used this as an excuse to buy some new rockin’ shoes. And, it worked! Throughout the rest of her pregnancy she got compliments about her great shoes and her skinny ankles. She heard, “I can’t believe you’re wearing those high heels! You’re amazing. You look amazing!”
LuAnn loved the idea that she had found a way to focus on what was working for her physically, rather than obsessing about what she didn’t enjoy. She believed she was already setting a good example for her daughter (she did have a girl!), demonstrating how to not obsess about a self-proclaimed body flaw, yet instead to acknowledge and leverage positives and strengths.For all of us, there are a couple of take-aways from LuAnn’s story.
- Focus on and accentuate the parts of you that look good… whether this is your ankles, your hair, your new cleavage, whatever. (We can do this ALWAYS… not just during pregnancy!)
- Think about how you’d want your daughter, your sister, your mom, your best girlfriend to think about herself. Would you want her to be constantly worried and obsessive about a body part? Be as respectful to yourself as you’d like to see the women in your life to be to themselves.
What other ways have you found to stay in touch with your “sexy”?
