I recently overheard two mothers openly fat shaming their 6-month-old daughters to one another, saying how they couldn\u2019t wait until their girls could walk, so they could lose some weight.<\/p>\n
Body image has never been something I wanted to discuss candidly, but I realized it was time for me to open my mouth. I was appalled, mortified and disturbed. I have a little girl, only 5 months old, and the last thing I want for her is to live a life ruled by her weight.<\/p>\n
\nI want my daughter to have brazen confidence about her body. I want her self-esteem and self-worth to exist separate from a number on a scale.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
I want her to cherish her beauty regardless of whether she fits into her \u201cskinny\u201d jeans, has a six pack, can run an eight-minute mile, or none of the above. I want my beautiful, precious angel to have mental health encompassing her physical health. Having a reformed starvation diet-lover turned health and fitness advocate for a mother, does my daughter even stand a chance?<\/p>\n
It was not until the very end of my first pregnancy that I began to truly appreciate the perfection and masterpiece of my own body. My body has the capacity to grow and nurture another human being \u2013 a little child who will one day become her own woman. Creating a healthy foundation for her future is my responsibility \u2013 it is of the utmost importance for me to instill positive support for her.<\/p>\n
When I was young it was sexy to be skinny \u2013 rail thin, about to get blown over by a gust of wind, skinny. Heroin chic<\/em>. (Sounds really healthy, right?) The look took the nation by storm. Anorexia and binge dieting became commonplace. I followed this trend. I hated my body. I starved myself and maintained what I deemed the ideal number on the scale.<\/p>\n
Through many a twist and turn, I found fitness and health in my mid-twenties. Today, my husband and I exercise regularly. We often train for endurance events and have fun competing. We take our nutrition seriously. Today, I have come to love my body and all of its abilities.<\/p>\n
Some may call the way I view fitness as a little overzealous. It is a cornerstone to my life. But where is the balance for my little girl?<\/p>\n
True health and wholeness changed my life in a spiritual way. It took great willpower, but I forced myself not to worry about my weight when I was pregnant. I chose to eat healthy and exercise solely for the health and wellbeing of my daughter. My mission was to give her the best start in life as possible. I want to share this type of holism with my daughter throughout her life.<\/p>\n
\nAs she continues to grow, I want to continue to show her how to be a whole, healthy person \u2013 to encourage a mindfulness of her body, rather an \u201cideal\u201d body image.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
It does not matter if she is naturally slender or thick; or if she decides that she wants to be a competitive athlete or if she leads a more sedentary life. In my eyes she will always be beautiful and I will always let her know that. Health begins in the home.<\/p>\n
\nSarah Cairns is mother to Olivia, now 5 months old. She is currently at work on a Psy.D. in Counseling Psychology at Northwest University.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I recently overheard two mothers openly fat shaming their 6-month-old daughters to one another, saying how they couldn\u2019t wait until their girls could walk, so they could lose some weight. Body image has never been something I wanted to discuss candidly, but I realized it was time for me to open my mouth. I was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":171,"featured_media":3045,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[168,115,56,402],"class_list":["post-3044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wellness","tag-body-image","tag-health","tag-motherhood","tag-wellness"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3044\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}