2 Comments
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Zoe Gardiner

I’m 100% with you on this one Zoe. I’ve recently uploaded 95% of my wardrobe on Vinted because I cannot fit in to any of my clothes anymore. In a way this feels really therapeutic - like a fresh start, a new identity. I’m not the woman I was pre-babies. But there’s also the sadness that my body isn’t in that smaller size anymore - and it’s ok to grieve that, but important to realise that the sadness comes from equating thinness with worth and success, which obviously comes from a BS diet culture!

There’s still too much pressure on women to “bounce back” after having babies, and society makes you feel like a failure if you never fit back in to those jeans again!!! I had to do a lot of re-learning and healing my relationship with food and body image after I became a mum (and once I realised that diets don’t actually work!)

I’d highly recommend the book “the f**k it diet” by Caroline Dooner.

Sending love and solidarity xxx

Expand full comment
author

It’s so hard, isn’t it.

I can imagine how freeing it felt to get rid of all your clothes ❤️ I haven’t actually done that and maybe that’s where some of the struggle comes from...

For me, I actually did ‘bounce back’ into my clothes quite fast and it was surgery (due to a postnatal tear) and going back to work plus medication etc that impacted me most.

I think, what is hard, is that bodies are meant to change and shift but we have such strong opinions forced upon us and ingrained in us around what a body is meant to be like, that these fluctuations can be really hard to navigate and quite scary.

I feel like I’m at the point where I’ve had a few too many new identities 😆 and I would like my body to settle, wherever that may be. I am hoping we’ve reached that part now 🤞

Expand full comment