Talking to Myself: Summer Bod Pep Talk

Hi Lady,

I see you scrolling fitness influencer sites looking for the best summer beach bod workout, or which cleanse promises to rid yourself of inches. I see you sweating it out only to be perpetually dissatisfied with your progress. I see you weighing and tracking your food in the hopes of greater success. I see you working.

But please, be gentle with yourself, especially your body. She has been through some stuff.

Give yourself time and release expectations of needing to be smaller. That magnificent body of yours carried you through some doozies: from pregnancy and births, to raising 4 small humans, to your father’s death. She has done a lot of work already. Let’s remember that next time you want to throw a negative thought her way.

Encourage her by feeding her good foods and getting her stronger, and she will become her healthiest self. That doesn’t necessarily mean she will be smaller, although if that’s what happens that is ok. She can change and fluctuate. But working toward her healthiest version by prioritizing her needs, be that stillness, pleasure, movement, softness, or ripped abs, will serve you best.

Sarah Keating
Sarah is a 30-something mom of four children under six and wife to her high-school sweetheart. She returned to Acadiana two years ago following her husband’s completion of medical school and residency in Shreveport. After the move, Sarah switched gears from full-time pediatric speech-language pathologist and working mom to full-time stay-at-home mom to her brood. Her current hobbies include “speech-therapizing” her children, re-reading the Outlander series, catching up on her Netflix queue after the kids go to bed, completing XHIT videos at naptime, and taking her medication every morning. She loves and respects the sacredness of motherhood, but sometimes you just have to let go and laugh it out. Motherhood has been the most humbling, and empowering journey she has experienced.