Posts tagged negative body image
StopHatingYourBody
On a mission to live a body positive life
i am very insecure about my body some days. of course, i have my days where i think i look great, but some days i can’t even stand to look in the mirror. my insecurities stem from my hips. they’re much larger than all my friends. so when i compare myself to them i feel bigger although i may not be. another insecurity is the little line right where my stomach starts. i have tried everything to make it go away. i do an ab workout every day just to make the line dissapear but it won’t. my sister tells me it’s normal, but none of my friends have it. then there’s my color..i live in this generation where if you’re not tan, you’re not pretty. all of my friends OBSESS over being tan. sometimes i try to lie out and get tan but i am very fair skinned and burn easily. if i make a remark of my paleness, such as if somebody is talking about their tan and i say yeah look at mine! in a joking way, people will always say “don’t worry! you’re not THAT pale!” i know they’re trying to make me feel better, but what they’re doing is giving the word “pale” a negative connotation. i AM pale. did i say it was a bad thing? no. but when people try to convince me i’m not pale or tell me not to worry because they’re sure i can get a tan, they make me saying i’m pale sound like i’m insulting myself. i don’t mind my color. why should you?
My disabled body is BEAUTIFUL.
When I was sixteen years old, I was diagnosed with a chronic pain disorder, and for the past six years it has gotten gradually worse, going from something that caused discomfort to something that caused severe pain as well as a whole assortment of other not-so-fun side effects.
Somewhere between my diagnosis and now, I started hating my body. I had spent years on diets, having never been happy with it to begin with, but I began to learn a new lesson: it is hard to love your body when it is at war with itself.
I’ve recently began to rethink my relationship with my body, and I’ve come to one major conclusion: my body is on my side. I can hate the disorder that has done this to me, but my body and I are fighting these battles together, so I shouldn’t hate it.
I’m disabled. But that doesn’t change the fact that I am gorgeous.
I am 16 years old and I have had body image issues for a long time. Ever since 7th grade I have been comparing myself to other people and noticing I wasn’t as skinny as they were. I have never been the “pretty” one, I have always been the tall one. I am 5’11 and 165 lbs. Recently I have stopped exercising as much because of schoolwork, which has only increased my insecurities. I have never been bullied per say, because the school I go to is a very accepting place, however, my parents have never been shy to tell me, aren’t you eating a little too much, or are you trying to lose weight, because that’s great if you are.
Recently I have been able to become more comfortable with myself and wore a bikini for the first time in a place where people other than just me would see my stomach and butt. I swim so my excuse for wearing a one piece all the time would be “this is the only suit I have” or “I can’t practice in a bikini.” This has helped me to accept myself and turn my attitude from “no one asked me to prom because I am too ugly and too fat” to “so what if no one asked me to prom, I can still go and have a great time and look so gorgeous, they will wish they asked me to prom.”
Hey everyone! My name is Dominique. I’m 19, from New York, currently going into my junior year in college.
This is my first submission but I thought it was finally time I faced this fear of sharing old pictures of myself and help others with my story.
On the left is a picture of me at my heaviest, in the beginning of freshman year of college. The middle picture was one of the last pictures I took before I ”stopped” being anorexic, 9 months after the first picture. The picture on the right is me today, a year after the middle picture.
So this is my story. I first went away to college and I was my heaviest weight. I had a huge insecurity with my weight because everyone I was meeting at college seemed to be so much skinnier than me. I began to get depressed as a result of my low self esteem and not having all of my friends from home around me to support me. I would go out and party to forget about my troubles but I would wake up every morning feeling worse about myself. I ended up on academic probation my first semester because my mind was anywhere else but my school work. After my first semester, the depression was only getting worse, and I made myself feel better by going to the gym and working myself to the point of either throwing up or almost fainting every day. I started counting calories. Then I very quickly became obsessed with counting calories to the point where I was eating negative calories every day. I was terrified of eating strawberries because they had sugar. I would have mental breakdowns over eating fruit, I would lay in bed and cry for hours over fruit. This went on for about 4 months. I lost 20 pounds in those 4 months and went from the picture on the left to the picture in the middle. And I was “happy” because I was small.
But the truth was, I was miserable for those months. I wouldn’t go out with my friends anymore because I felt too ugly. Any self worth that I had was gone. I didn’t care if I lived or not because I couldn’t live with being so fat. Because I didn’t hang out with my friends, I soon didn’t have any. All I could think about was food, how to avoid it, how to eat without really eating around others. I felt alone. I felt lost. I really wanted to give up.
I’ve been struggling with my weight since I was 13 years old. I would skip lunches all throughout middle school and high school. I would do work outs in my room in the middle of the night. I’ve always had a little voice in the back of my mind telling me I’m not good enough.
About a year ago, I decided I am good enough.
I looked in the mirror one day and I could see my ribs and my hip bones clearly. That scared me. All I could think about was that if I kept this up, I would actually die. I started eating again and gained 10 pounds back right away. I’ve been basically at the same weight for the past year. The picture on the right is me today, right between the two weights. Except I’m a lot different now, not just physically but mentally.
Mentally, I’m stronger, I’m happier. I live a healthy life style. I eat right for the most part, I exercise a few times a week, and I DON’T count calories. Anorexia is something that I’ll struggle with for the rest of my life. I think about it every day. I think about not eating or eating less every day. But I don’t let it get to me because it’s not worth putting myself through all that pain and suffering again. It was hard to change my ways, it killed me a little inside every time I ate a full meal in the beginning of my recovery. Recovering was difficult but worth it. Although I still have a few more pounds I want to shed, I’m going to do it the healthy way. I will reach my goal even with that little demon on my shoulder every day telling me to skip meals. I’m better than that.
I really hope that whoever you are reading this, can gain something from my story. You are worth it. You are allowed to be healthy without feeling guilty. YOU CAN DO IT! I believe in you. I am living, breathing proof that you can beat anorexia. If you feel alone or discouraged at any point, please contact me. I really want to help you help yourself because I’ve been there and it sucks. You deserve to be happy. My blog is thinkbetterof.tumblr.com
Smile :) You’re beautiful. Don’t let yourself or anyone else tell you otherwise.
i never really liked my imperfections, i went through major anxiety and had panic attacks and i was cutting for three years and attempted suicide four times, i have been bullied all my life for the way i look and i’ve had serious eating disorders, and im only recently turning fifteen, which makes it even worse, although i have self image issues i feel like those feelings have slightly surpassed, so now i feel like my body is great.
i can be confident in what i wear, what i eat and what i do because its my body and no one else’s
![© [ . V E R T E B R Æ . (by ~LaCice) ]
The hardest thing to do, is not changing our body … but the way we see it.
There’s no logical reason why we should be ashamed about our appearance.
Let’s show to the world what we’re made of! (:
BE BRAVE! JOIN THE BODY PEACE REVOLUTION!](http://25.media.tumblr.com/0ffc87a63e5ff3fa0582e9482280fdd3/tumblr_mmw7xhOpO41qen4sno1_500.png)
© [ . V E R T E B R Æ . (by ~LaCice) ]
The hardest thing to do, is not changing our body … but the way we see it.
There’s no logical reason why we should be ashamed about our appearance.
Let’s show to the world what we’re made of! (:
My name is Felicia, I am 26 years old and I am from California. All my life I’ve been different looking. Firstly it was because of my lazy eye. I often got made fun of for it. Then when I was 11 I started my period and gained a lot of weight. Add to that my thyroid gland decided it wanted to act up and I gained even more weight. Every since then I knew I was different, I started to get teased for my size as well. Even then, I didn’t really think I was that unattractive. Only when people pointed out that I was fat. I use to cry a lot and envy my sisters for being thin. I have 4 sisters, all of them beautiful and then. Why wasn’t I blessed with their beauty? Why did I have to be the fat one? Year round I would wear jackets or sweaters, so no one would see my figure. I started to discover myself in high school and decide who I wanted to be in high school. During a Black History month performance, this big woman performed Maya Angelou’s “Still I rise” It spoke to me more than any other poem I’ve heard before. “You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise.” That is my favorite line from the poem. Every since then, I’ve tried to walk with my head held up high. People can talk, I will let them talk, I may even fall, but I always get back up. It took me a few years, but I am finally learning to accept who I am. I am 5’2 293lbs. I have a lazy eye and my skin isn’t perfect, but you know what? Nobody is perfect! I need to start living up to my own standards. What matter is what I think. It is okay to be different! I am fierce, intelligent and I can sing like an angel! I am awesome. I love my body!
You can find me here, I love meeting new people http://falulu.tumblr.com/
This is the first time i’ve ever really posted something like this. Sure i’ve shown parts of my body to other people but those people only included my best friend and my mom. I’ve always been insecure about my body, i’d look in the mirror and cringe or just cry. I never really liked myself because of my body. At being 5’3 i thought of myself being plump and round like a pumpkin and i didn’t like it at all. I wanted to change it but anytime i tried to exercise i didn’t get results fast enough or i’d just gain more weight. At one point i reached my highest weight at 215…or something like that. I hated myself for it. I’d always wear hoodies to hide myself, i thought i could protect my body against the judgmental eyes of society. What i didn’t realize is that tons of people are going through the same thing as me so they don’t pay attention to me. I wish i could say i started eating lots of greens and had some kickass exercise plan that made me lose my 60 pounds but the truth is, I don’t. I mean sure i walked a lot more and drank lots of water but that’s not it. You see sometimes you just have to stop worrying so much and just live.You only have one life and we don’t deserve to spend so much of it worrying so much about our weight. Whether we be skinny or plump, we’re perfect the way we are as long as we’re healthy and happy.
**TRIGGER WARNING; self harm, self hate.** All my life I have been insecure. I am 15, and I am just now realizing I am beautiful. I used to self harm, I went through years of that, but now I’m getting better. But, I never liked my chubby tummy, how my tummy is w shaped, the dimpled I have on my tummy, or my thighs. But no I’m relizing that is what makes me beautiful. I am beautiful. You are beautiful. We all are beautiful.
My tumblr is sweet-tea-and-reading.tumblr.com
nana rodriguez always hated my body, i’ve always been told, “you’d be so pretty/hot/cute/attractive if you weren’t fat” and i’m finally starting to realize with the help of my wonderful boyfriend danni, that i am fucking hot no matter how much fat i have or lack, if i have “acceptable” curves or i’m a size 0. i am beautiful.. or i’m starting to think i am. i’m five feet three inches tall, and at my fattest weight ever and i’ve never felt better about myself.
I have hated a lot of things about myself. I still do sort of…
but screw it. I’m hairy, I have tons of crevices, scars, bumps, and humps. I have scrawny areas and fat areas.
I’m like one of those tea pots that the more damaged they are, the more beautiful they become. Because being yourself gives you character and uniqueness. Don’t conform unless you really want to. Try to love yourself. Lets go through this journey of selflove together each day of our lives.
Hi guys! My name is Makena and I am 18 years old!
I have been posting on SHYB since I started recovery for my bulimia with anorexic tendencies almost two years ago. I know the top picture looks like a before-and-after of my weight, but it’s not! The picture on the left is one of the first pictures I submitted of myself to SHYB, back in 2011. I was still in the midst of my eating disorder and very much struggling with my self-image. As you can see, I was too embarrassed to wear a bikini. Whenever I see that photo on the left, I see a very unhappy girl with zero confidence. I hated my legs and I thought I had a very chubby stomach. Now in the photo on the right, after nearly two years of recovery with much love and support, I see someone totally different! I see a girl that—can you believe it—was excited to wear a bikini to the beach, and not just wear it, but take pictures! I am just truly proud of all the positive changes and progress I have made in my life: I work out at least 4x a week and keep track of my nutrition (not calories). I actually am starting to love my body and I am learning more every day how to treat it with the respect it deserves.
Also, I just wanted to say, in August I will be one year purge-free!!:))
Anyways, thanks for reading this! If anyone ever wants to talk sometime, message me here!
TRIGGER WARNING: eating disorders, harassment, abuse, self-hate
So I’m not much of a talker, but I’ll do my best to get my point across.
THE FACTS
1. I had (still have) a poor relationship with my father in middle school. I was in an abusive relationship with a kind of friend in middle school. I was sexually harassed in middle school. I logically (though ultimately irrationally) concluded that there was something wrong with me. I spent the next two years striving to lose weight.
2. I lost weight, twenty pounds of it, and also lost my period and sanity because I was anorexic. (I was never technically underweight, but my body was wasting away all the same.) A shrink and a dietician “fixed” me, but for whatever reason, I was determinedly unfixed.
3. This is my senior year of high school. I have had a lot of falls and a lot of triumphs, and my life is eons, lightyears, universes away from something spectacular.
But this is not my body’s fault. And I have learned to love it.
I LOVE MY BODY BECAUSE
1. The places I’ve pierced my body (belly-button, nipples, VCH) have helped me to love it. When I hated my curvy belly, I decorated it. When I hated my big bouncy boobs, I made them my own. When I felt that my lady parts were working against me, I took control of them. I am fiercely proud of what I’ve done to my body.
2. My body is sensitive and can be delicate. My body knows when something is wrong. When I travel, when I eat something that doesn’t agree with me, when I refuse to eat, my body tells me. It may not always be pleasant, but it knows what’s good for me.
3. My body is strong. It can run for miles. It can push things, lift things, hold things. My body keeps me safe.
4. My body is much more than beautiful. My boyfriend thinks it’s beautiful, sure, but I no longer care if people think it’s beautiful or not. My body is more than a collection of attractive/unattractive parts. My body is my home, and nobody has to apologize for the place that they live in. And I will never apologize.
I’m being brave again and submitting this because I looked at it and thought I like how my body looks. This is huge. I NEVER think that. I have gained a lot of weight and at my highest weight ever, and I am constantly at war with my body. I have suffered from eating disorders for three years, and have had terrible, horrible, non-existant self esteem for even longer. Maybe it’s just the lighting and the way I’m standing, but I actually like how I look here. Taking pictures of my body helps me to see it the way it really is and not the distorted way I see it daily in the mirror. I think the human body is a beautiful thing and is not something to be ashamed of in any way shape or form. And I’m not ashamed of my body for this one moment. I am scarred and I have thick thighs that touch and a lower belly pooch and small boobs, and thats okay. I’m still beautiful how I am. My body is mine and I need to accept it. And if I can accept it in this photo and share that acceptance with all of you, that is a step in the right direction.
I never thought I would see myself in a bikini ever again, but that’s essentially what I’m wearing- a bikini. And it’s clothing that I feel proud and comfortable to wear, even after all this time.
I submitted a photo a year back when I was trying to deal with weight gain that came with recovery from anorexia. I was still incredibly insecure, but I felt that sharing my body and trying to become more comfortable with it might help me overcome my insecurities. One year and lots of hard work later, I finally feel like I’m at a place where I can be happy with myself, inside and out.
It’s still a lot of work and I have days where I feel like I’m relapsing, only to challenge my disordered thoughts and manage to find myself stronger in the end. I know that I’m almost there, and not being able to exercise due to an injury won’t stop me from recovering. The last step in my recovery is learning to be okay with myself without feeling the need to exercise, and I’m surviving it one day at a time. It’s been almost two months since my last workout, but I’m still on the road to recovery— it may be slower than before, but I’m still going.
I think my final message to everybody is that you’re beautiful, even if you don’t think that you are. Loving yourself doesn’t happen overnight, and it’s going to be a lot of hard work, but it’s worth it. You’re worth it. You are beautiful and loved, and all those people who love you will continue to love you +/- 20lbs, I promise you that.
The first step is learning to love yourself, and freeing yourself from the restraints, whether it be internal or external. You only live once, so let your life revolve around happy moments and exciting things rather than your body because it doesn’t- and never will- define your worth.
Feel free to message me at livelaughrecover.
