Newcastle Photographer and Content Creator, Mandy Charlton, Always on a quest for adventure, often seen on buses, trains and planes. On a quest to be happier and healthier. Lives in Newcastle with her 3 cats, Iris, Maggie and Arthur. Loves good vibes, musicals and cakes. Full time professional wedding photographer in the north east of england alongside content creator on Tiktok, Instagram and Facebook

Wednesday, September 03, 2014

It's a weighty issue...

Today dear reader I wanted to talk about something personal which a lot of you will identify with, yes, lets talk about feeling big, fat and elephantine or at least feeling that way!  I went to Slimming World in April 2013 and lost 2 stone and then I left in February of this year and it all kind of fell apart.  Writing a book and constantly being at the mercy of food on trains is not a healthy way to live so I thought since it's September, start of a new term and I'm not planning on travelling this month I would go back to my favourite Slimming World group in Heaton, this time I have about 2 stone I want to lose which is a stone less than last time and you know what was wonderful?  Being welcomed back with open arms and hugs and just that wonderful feeling of being amongst others who understand.  I've always had issues with food, growing up being told I was fat or should be on a diet stands out from my childhood and understandably this has always stayed with me, it's an inner battle and I know that even when I lose the weight I'll still feel in myself that I'm not quite there yet but I'm also a strong enough woman (and I'm 40 for goodness sake) to at least accept myself and feel happier when I am thinner.

In my work I meet women of all shapes and sizes from size 6 to size 24 and we're all having the exact same issues, some men feel the same but I think the media doesn't constantly bombard them with images of how we should be.

Having tween girls is difficult because I don't ever want them to have issues with themselves, I think telling them they're gorgeous and beautiful and that they only have to be good enough is a great tactic but then I can't stop those extraneous social circumstances which makes young girls question their appearance, their weight, everything about themselves.  I do though believe that if you build a childs confidence up every day instead of criticism every day (another facet of my upbringing) they'll end up a lot more adept at just knowing how fabulous they are.

We as women need to pay much less attention to airbrushed models with overly long limbs (you know they stretch them with photo shop right?) wearing makeup which quite frankly makes them look like they've been injecting heroin into their eyeballs, it's not a good look!

So today I say, if you're not happy with your body do something about it but be realistic and look in the mirror and say you love yourself and learn to love yourself more every day, you know they say to be loved we first have to truly love ourselves.


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