A Confidence Building Read

This morning, I was woken by the sound of my beautiful daughter's voice, "Mama, night night?" She was up and was checking to see if I was awake as well.

As I pulled her into bed with me so we could snuggle I tried to capture every little thing that made her HER into my heart and my memory.

Her frizzy little bed head curls, her slight morning breath, the crusties around her beautiful almond shaped eyes, her chunky little thighs and her sweet smile. She is perfect!! There is nothing I would change about her.

Then I realized that she has so many traits of mine... specifically the frizzy bed head curls, and chunky thighs. Traits that I really don't appreciate or like. Things that I would love to change about myself. Things I would never want her to be self conscious about. Which I am totally giving the wrong impression about.

Amazingly, when I turned on the TV to watch Elmo, Matt Lauer w/ the Today Show was on talking about a Plus Sized Model who bared it all in Glamour Magazine.

Lizzie Miller, a 20 year old model, is a size 12. Not what I consider plus size nor fat. She is an average sized woman. A beautiful young lady who posed numerous times for Glamour Magazine.

To me, Lizzie is a REAL woman. Some one I can look at and not be self conscious about the way I look or how clothes fits me. She exercises, eats right and loves life!! She is an inspiration to so many women young and old thin or curvy; Size 2 to 26!!

The article that Lizzie's photo appears in was touching. There were parts of it that I swore came right out of my head. And then there were the parts that made me tear up.

"A lot of my female clients make anxious comments like, ‘You’ve probably never seen thighs this big,’ or they apologize if they have a day’s worth of stubble on their legs. It’ll take a few sessions for them to relax and enjoy the massage." - Jennifer Phillips, certified massage therapist

That is me!! I can't tell you how many times I have felt awkward having a bit of a stubble on my legs when I went to get a pedicure.

“Since pregnancy is such a transformational time, I use the opportunity to plant seeds with expectant mothers. I point out that women’s bodies are soft and round for a reason. For example, hips widen to accommodate the weight of a new life. And what we call the pooch—the slight roundness of the belly—stores needed estrogen. We’ve been poisoning ourselves with unrealistic images for so long that we see these parts as liabilities. But we can create life, for God’s sake! So I want all of us, pregnant or not, to embrace the changes our bodies undergo as a part of the natural order of things.” -Sue Baelen, licensed midwife

Beautiful!!! We are woman, we should embrace our curves.