Loving the skin you’re in

A real woman

Has Curves

Is Skinny

Has Muscles

is whatever the hell she wants to be

I remember the first time I ever read this quote, I was absentmindedly scrolling Instagram and there it was, a quote so simplistic in it’s message but made me stop in my tracks and fist pump the air silently screaming yes. The message I had tried so hard to convey for the past 5 years of my life, right in front of my eyes. The power was in it’s truth, and it’s simplicity.

A real woman – IS whatever the hell she wants to be.

No truer words could be spoken.

So why am I choose to share this with you now? Well because I want to share some recent photos I had taken of myself that came about after me completing a 6 week body challenge where I was just simply a little more behaved with my eating (and drinking of champagne) and strict with my training, i.e. I did more hot yoga in between my F45 sessions. I want to share them though because I’m really, really proud of them, but being proud of them, means I’m proud of me – and you know what? I’m proud of myself for that fact. I’m proud of myself that I am PROUD of my body and my photos because it has taken me a really long time to get to this place.

I was also called to share these photos and title this; loving the skin you’re in, because there are some devastating statistics that I think need your attention..

The stats?

Only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful (up from 2% in 2004)
Only 11% of girls globally are comfortable describing themselves as ‘beautiful’
72% of girls feel tremendous pressure to be beautiful
80% of women agree that every woman has something about her that is beautiful but do not see their own beauty
More than half (54%) of women globally agree that when it comes to how they look, they are their own worst beauty critic

(Reference: http://www.dove.us/docs/pdf/19_08_10_The_Truth_About_Beauty-White_Paper_2.pdf)

Another huge thing happened to me the other day that came about whilst at a leadership event on the Gold Coast sitting next to my husband. The 1,500 strong crowd was asked by the amazing relationship coach and speaker Beth Hanishewski what kind of qualities would our partner have if we had a 10/10 relationship. I based my qualities (of course) around my husband Morgan and listed things like; attentive, sincerely loving, conscious, romantic, and when I looked at his list, although many of our qualities matched, there was one right in the middle that took my breathe away;

“Loves her body and beauty”

I (naturally) immediately questioned him over this saying hey, but I DO love my body and don’t have that negative self talk around my image to which he replied “yeah baby but you yourself still don’t even realise how much you can put yourself or your body down”. It actually made me deeply emotional in the best of ways. Here was a man, I love more than life itself, wanting a quality in his wife where she honoured and loved herself more. A quality that I dare say is not unique to him alone, I believe most men, if not all men would honour this in a woman and yet here we are barely able to honour ourselves.

I realised that if someone who talks on love, self love, and being an ambassador of both, still has moments of weakness around seeing her beauty, loving the skin she’s in and self worth issues, then I am underestimating just how rampant this issue is amongst other women also.

So I want to remind you again with the quote that helped me understand that it didn’t matter if I chose to be bigger, smaller, musclier, curvier, whatever ….

A real woman is (whoever) or whatever the hell she wants to be

You are beautiful and it is your prerogative to look inside and find what it is you need to realise that. I know for me, getting to this moment, and loving the skin I’m in (and believe me I still have bad hours* don’t worry!) it took me developing healthier eating habits, exercising every day with movement that I love and finding self love rituals that worked for me.

We all have work to do on ourselves when it comes to this self love thing, I just shared honestly above that even I do but in the spirit of flexing that muscle and owning that I am becoming more proud of the skin I am in (through lot’s of hard work and sweat and dedication) it would be an honour to share these photos with you to try to start increasing that statistic of 11% of women who are comfortable calling themselves beautiful.

P.s how I achieved these results is as I said above, dedication and commitment to my health. Health and vitality is my #1 priority so everyday I eat right and move my body. Food wise; it’s clean eating around my Isagenix and training wise, I incorporate F45 sessions (5-6 times a week) with Hot Yoga 3-4 times a week also. F45 for my body and Yoga for my mind. Isagenix for my overall healthy wellbeing and nutrition. If you want to talk about Isagenix (what is it and more information) you’ll find me to chat about it at info@annaandmorgan.com