How to Deal with Summer Body Images Struggles

Before I dive into how to handle body image struggles during summer, I have to share something with you that happened recently that tore me up!

Ever heard a kid say something negative about their body that hit you in the gut because you HATE that they’ve already learned body shame? That happened to me this week with my own kid.😭

Backstory… my kiddos have been taking swim lessons this last week and my 9-year-old son has worn a short every day. My husband mentioned he might have an easier time swimming if he took off his shirt, and my son said he didn’t want to because “I don’t have abs.”

****cue my ugly internal crying****

I’ve already heard my 5-year-old daughter say things about her appearance that broke my heart, but this is new territory with my son. My mama bear instincts flared up, and I literally wanted to run around SCREAMING at everything diet culture for making him feel ashamed of his body. He’s not even in the double-digit years of life yet! 

Kids of any age should not have to deal with that.

Actually, none of us should. But here we are.

I share this story to remind you that summer is hard on our body image, so if you’re struggling, you’re not alone. And it’s no wonder! Between wearing warm-weather clothes (or swimsuits) that show more of our bodies to incessant messages about getting “beach body ready,” it’s tough to practice body acceptance this time of year!

(As a side note, a body + a beach = beach body ready! No modifications required.)

Going through summer when you feel insecure about your body can be really difficult. Still, we CAN enjoy summer whether we think we have a nice-enough body or not. I used to tell myself I couldn’t do the fun summer things unless I was thinner, but the truth is… It never felt like enough. No matter how much weight I lost, I was still insecure. And I’ve seen so many others have the same experience. Maybe you don’t feel thin enough yet, or your worried about your cellulite, or think you need abs… whatever it is, there’s rarely a time we feel 100% confident.

Good thing that’s not a pre-requisite for living an awesome life.

You can still eat the ice cream with everyone else.
You can still wear the swimsuit and hang out at the pool.

You can still wear the shorts and tank top to the BBQ. It’s uncomfortable, yes. But I doubt any of us would look back at the end of our lives and wish we’d waited to do all those things until we lost weight or looked better.

It’s so cliche, I almost want to roll my own eyes as I say this, but I’ll say it anyway…Life is too dang short to spend it hiding out.

So get out there. Do the thing. Wear the thing. Because diet culture does NOT get to steal our lives from us any more than we let it.