In this age of Instagram models, extreme diets, and pervasive plastic surgery, it’s harder than ever to accept your body as it is. It took me a long time to realize I don’t need to look like a Kardashian in order to live a full and happy life or to love the body that carries me through it, especially because I’m pretty young and, I mean, Khloe didn’t get distressingly snatched until her 30s, so there’s still time for me. So here’s how I finally made peace with my body by realizing that, with enough money and effort, I can always just change it later.
One of the most toxic elements of today’s iteration of fitness culture is the moralization of physical fitness. There’s an all too prevalent notion that individuals have a responsibility to always be “improving” their bodies, but the truth is my body is doing exactly what it was built to do just as it is, and I wouldn’t be a “better” person inside or out if I had six-pack abs or lifted, toned glutes. I achieve great inner peace from the knowledge that I just want to enjoy my life! And I can do that for a few more years, and maybe then I’ll get crazy into working out and have a fully shredded bod.
But it’s not just the changes that could be achieved through lifestyle choices that we’re pressured into considering. For the longest time, I was insecure about my boobs and was convinced that I would feel so much more attractive if they were bigger and perkier. But now I’ve let go of all the ifs and I just enjoying existing in my body with my breasts exactly as they are because I don’t have boob job money right now, but one day I probably will, and then I can get whatever tits I want. Till then, why bother stressing it?
Ultimately, when it comes to body acceptance and neutrality, the only viable path is living in the present, and the only true way to live in the present and stop trying to change things is to remember that you can just change things later. And that’s how I learned that I’m perfect just the way I am, as a before picture for my conventionally hot middle age self. I can’t wait! But I definitely will.
