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Puts everything we've ever thought about body image into perspective.
By Cassandra Rose — Written on Jun 29, 2021
Our Instagram feeds are flooded with shot after artistic shot of healthy greens and protein shakes by eclectic foodies while "before and after" selfies of fitness lovers practically dominate all of our social media pages.
Consistently working towards having a healthy lifestyle is a good thing. In a sense, taking care of yourself is the best way to give back to your body for supporting you, a message that we're all for. Showing off your progress can be incredibly cathartic.
But sometimes, when we celebrate our workout wins — whether it's your weight loss, rock hard abs, or tightened buns — with a comparative selfie, we unconsciously send another more depressing message.
The undeniable truth is that every single "before and after" shot has this one thing in common: A person's transformation from someone who harbors hate for his or her body to someone who finally "loves" it.
This begs the question: If we don't love our bodies before, how can we be sure that we'll always love what we see after?
This is where Taryn Brumfitt's story comes in. Taryn, who is a mother of three, decided to challenge this trend. After she struggled with her own body image for years, she entered a body-building contest as a way to lose weight and get the body that she (thought she) wanted.
But then, something crazy happened. Taryn realized that losing the weight didn't equal gaining self-esteem.
She says in her 2015 documentary Embrace, "I did have the perfect body, or near enough. And you know what? Nothing changed. Nothing changed about how I felt about my body."
And it makes sense. Most people think that by changing how you physically look, your body image will automatically skyrocket.
But the reality is if you don't already love who you are, that self-hate will only grow stronger every time you look in the mirror.
So with this in mind, Taryn flipped the switch on what body positivity really means by taking her own "before and after" selfie but only AFTER she gained the weight back.
She redefines what the true definition of self love is, and we couldn't agree more. It's not about how sexy you look to the world around you but how you feel about yourself.
But the most enlightening and beautiful moment occurs when she says "How am I going to teach [my daughter] to love her body if her mom can't do the same?"
We can't argue with that.
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Cassandra Rose is a love and entertainment writer.