Summer is nearing and it’s time to break out the swimsuits! Yay?
If you’re like most women, the thought of flaunting your body in a revealing bikini is a little intimidating, especially after the effects of pregnancy. My struggles with weight and body image have gobbled up far too many summers and in recent years I have really grown in my acceptance of my body, even with its battle scars. The stretch marks, cellulite and wobbly bits are all pieces of me that tell part of the tale of who I am: the babies I’ve birthed, the food I’ve shared with friends, the trials I’ve faced while striving for perfection.
That being said, I don’t think I’ll ever wear a bikini again.
I just feel so much more confident in a one-piece. All my parts of tucked in, locked and loaded, and I’m not worrying about that strange flap of stomach-skin hanging over my bikini bottom or my drooping areola oozing out from beneath a triangle top.
Last year I bought this bathing suit:
and I love it. It makes me feel like Marilyn Monroe.
Do you wear bikinis? Do you have a new-found confidence after having kids, or do you hide out under a cover-up all summer long?
Please I want to know too, where do you buy that bikini????
Where do you buy that bikini, and how much????
No, I don’t “bikini”, even though I am smaller than before I had kids. Having babies and being so unhappy with my body for those years have really done a number on my brain, even though I know that my clothes are WAY big on me now I don’t see any difference. I can put myself and my two year old in some of my pants and I just see the same old fat girl in the mirror – the one who weighed over 30 lbs more. It’s hard to change that negative thinking even if the numbers don’t lie!!
love the suit. we all have our insecurities about wearing a swimsuit but dont let it stop you from going out and enjoying yourself.
i am fortunate to be able to wear a 2 piece which is great. i’m too long in the torso for a one piece so i just end up looking like borat in his green bathing suit.
I have a really short body and very long legs so one pieces look ridiculous on me. I have one that I wear to the pool swimming with my kid but I seriously look nuts.
Not sure the bod is bikini ready right now but what the hell!
I love wearing my one piece. I have both, but I feel much more “in” wearing a one piece. When I wear a bikini…..I have to make sure my nipples don’t start to show, or the bikini doesn’t ride and show the bottom of my boobs.
I am not a huge fan of my butt……….and I like my stomach…… so I feel like a bikini is probably more flattering on me………..but I love how my one piece is a bit more modest…….and as Easton gets older, that he won’t be traumatized by seeing his mom’s boobs on the beach if I am wearing my one piece.
I have major stretchmarks on my stomach that I wouldn’t show for anything, so I started wearing a one piece. But you know, I think I actually look sexier in my one piece, which is very low cut, compared to the bikinis that I used to walk around in. Plus, I don’t care as much as I used to about how I look because I’m busy chasing my 2 year old who is chasing the seagulls at the beach:) I don’t have time to stress over cellulite and jiggles.
All that being said, I would totally tell my pre-baby self to live it up in those bikinis & wear them with pride, because I really did look good in them once upon a time!
Yes, I bikini! For a bunch of reasons…yes, I’m in the best shape of my life and it’s more fun than it’s been in the past but I also did through most of my pregnancies and shortly after. I just can’t find a one piece I feel that I look good in! Yours looks very glam and suits your style beautifully! I get wedgies and it flattens what little chest I have. I’m on the lookout for a great tankini for the pool days and when I’m serious about swimming. Bikini’s are not awesome for that.
That suit is gorgeous! I’m all about the bikini when I’m swimming to play, though, or at least I have been since having my kids. I’m not worried about showing off my stretch-marks or my utter lack of cleavage, and I’m generally happy with the way my body has weathered so far. The one-piecers I wear for training or competition make me look like a slightly effeminate 12-year-old boy – so NOT Marilyn Monroe!
I am 48 and I wear anything. Not because I “can” but because at 80 I will wish I did.
I have some not so cute skin puckering and dimpling but I do bikini and I love it.
but I love this bather you bought and it is totally MM – where did you get it?
I’m thinner than I’ve been since before puberty (and that’s totally not a joke), my body is more fit and some areas jiggle less than they used to (notice I said less, not, not at all. I will perpetually jiggle i believe, thank you thunder thighs) and yet I feel more self concious in a bikini now than I did when I was 16. Maybe it’s the part about losing my bikini top while riding a waterslide, and standing up in front of a few hundred people topless that did the damage, but I don’t think so. Something about the fact that while I may have all those changes, my skin is looser, and wrinkly and a one piece makes me feel appropriate. Also – since I’m by nature clumsy a one piece should help prevent another swimsuit mishap from happening while in the kiddy pool at the waterpark….I hope.
ps. I love that suit! Beautiful.
I bought a suit very similar to that in black last year and I LOVE IT. I get so many compliments on it and I really feel like it is truly flattering, unlike any other suit I’ve owned.
I actually think that one pieces are WAY nicer than two pieces. I own both but i seem to get triple the compliments with my one piece. Hmmm…i wonder if they’re telling me something.
I still wear them… I sure don’t have a perfect body by any standards, but I keep reminding myself that though some people are complete hardbodies, others just aren’t. Some people are more “naturally blessed” than others, and the rest of us are just normal humans, with normal human skin… it’s the same for everyone. Summer is HOT, yo… wear what feels good, I reckon. With each passing year, I have to psyche myself up about this whole thing less and less… that is waaaaaaay liberating. (Besides, I will be positively NOSTALGIC for the body I have now, one of these days, so I might as well just DEAL, right?!)
I LOVE your suit from last year, lady!! Tres glam… I’m sure it looks TERRIFIC on you!! xox
One pregnancy and my bikini days are over! I got a bathing suit very similar to yours! I love the hiding job it does over my tummy! This is my first summer with it and I think it’s going to be okay.