'For the first time I feel thankful for my body': Mum's photo of her stretch marks and cellulite sends an important message
For Meghan Boggs, the number on the scale is the difference between a good day and a bad day.
After years of struggling with her weight, the wife and stay-at-home mum who runs a successful blog has finally set herself free — and wants other women to do the same.
Boggs has never been shy about her weight loss journey. In 2014, the then-newlywed was told by her doctor that she was too overweight to have children, sparking an 80-pound weight loss and new love of weight training.
Boggs became pregnant in 2017, and regained some of the weight through pregnancy, but says she is learning to love and appreciate her body as a result.
In a new Instagram post, Boggs shared her struggle to accept her post-baby body with her more than 36,000 followers.
“I used to weigh myself every morning. I would always make sure to go to the bathroom first,” Boggs said. “There would be a rush of anxiety as the scale blinked while I stared down in anticipation… Would I be positive and embrace the day happily because the number was a whole .1 lower than yesterday morning? Or would I angrily start brushing my teeth and threaten myself to only eat a salad for today because the number was a whole .1 higher than yesterday.”
A post shared by meghan (@meg.boggs) on Nov 27, 2018 at 12:40pm PST
Like many people, Boggs says she held on to the belief that the only way she could be happy was to lose weight — which she did.
“I worked out only to lose weight, rather than the way I do now where I focus more on how it makes me feel,” she continued. “But then I had Maci. For the first time I felt thankful for my body.”
Boggs says it was after her daughter was born, and she went to have her first postpartum shower that she began the journey of accepting her body in all its forms.
“I almost remember it in slow motion because I had avoided a mirror for years, even throughout most of my pregnancy,” she said. “I saw me for what felt like the very first time, but after another few seconds I closed my eyes. I turned around and walked towards the shower. This moment was just the beginning of my self-love journey. It doesn’t happen quickly. But it never would have happened had I not tried.”
Now, Boggs is using social media to spread body positivity and connect with people through sharing her story and normalising all shapes and sizes of beauty.
“My self-love journey has been all over the place,” she said. “It’s taken writing, photos and simple mirror meetings with myself. I’ve had empowering days and I’ve had days I crumble at the thought of trying to dress up, much less share a photo. But that’s the thing. It’s a constant journey and always evolving.”
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