Love Your Body: Hippy Juice Mama

It's Wednesday and that means it's time for another Love Your Body guest post. Thank you for following along, if you missed the first post in the series featuring Just Plain Marie check it out here and my intro post here. Okay enough from me, take it away Alicia...

Hi! I'm Alicia from Hippy Juice Mama, where I write about life, finding my voice, and slowly transitioning my family to a natural lifestyle. I'm a recovering people pleaser journeying through life to become the person I was meant to be.

Looking in the mirror I see a face that's puffy, facial hair that shouldn't be there, dark circles, and acne. I move back a little and take notice of the rest of my body. My stomach is protruding and I sigh to myself and worry if another person will ask me today if I'm expecting, knowing that when I say no I will try to laugh it off while secretly chocking back tears. My shoulders slouch. My thighs are bigger and my body is covered in stretch marks from my breasts down to my calves.

When I was a teenager I was so very skinny. I could eat whatever I wanted and not gain a pound. Fast forward to 2 kids, PCOS (poly cystic ovarian syndrome), and Hashimotos (autoimmune thyroid disorder) later I can barely recognize this person I see in the mirror.

Shopping now sucks. It just flat out sucks! The brands I once loved now fit my body in a really awkward way. The lighting in dressing rooms are just terrible, why do they do this don't they want to sell clothes?

When I'm ready to cry and just throw on something comfy and stretchy I take another look in the mirror.

Yes there is more fluff there than there once was and I will never be able to wear a bikini again but I have a body that carried two beautiful children. I have a body that is fighting daily against an autoimmune disease.

There are more and more days lately that I look in the mirror and see curves and not fluff. I'm learning to appreciate my body and know that the size of my jeans has nothing to do with the size of my heart. I don't have the moves like Jagger or a booty like Beyoncé, but I shake what my momma gave me weekly in Zumba and I participate in 5ks even though I feel like it may kill me.

My body is imperfect and it will be imperfect until the day I die. One day I'll have grey hair or maybe no hair at all (by evidence of my shower floor). I'll have wrinkles and flabby loose skin. But it'll still be the same arms that held sleeping babies, it'll still be the same body that was embraced by my husband, and it'll be the same body that I have come to care for and love.

You can find me on:

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I love that each Love Your Body story is different and unique, and that's because each one of these awesome ladies sharing their story is unique. If you'd like to share your story email me at TheWorldAroundHer(at)gmail(dot)com. 

Thanks for stopping by, have a great day!