Musings of a now-loved belly

I love every season except winter. The reason why I hate winter, is not because I don’t like sweaters (on the contrary!).. but because of the salt, the ice and the snow.

Without all of that, I love winter. 😛

But gearing up for a season that requires you bare more (let’s face it, I am not going to be wearing long-sleeved anything during the summer unless I’m cycling to prevent tan lines)… means that bodily insecurities are coming up fast and furious.

I’m reading lots of blog posts about how people hate their thighs, their butt, their boobs their stomach.

The tummy apparently, is the biggest concern for most women, judging by most of the comments I’ve read. No one likes their stomach, and I can totally relate.

I’ve said before that my body type is just naturally slender.

When I was 20 pounds lighter than I am today, people asked if I was eating enough — trust me, I was, I could pack it away like my bigger siblings, and ate more per pound than my biggest of brothers.

Yet even then, I still had a bit of a belly that sticks out.

A round, but still cute little belly. Sometimes she grows bigger when I eat, and sometimes she shrinks when I’m hungry. It’s almost like I just have happen bigger, expandable pouch in that section, like a kangaroo.

I hated having such a large belly when the rest of me was otherwise proportionate, and fitting into clothes wasn’t a thrill, as pants would always cut into my stomach as I sat down. I secretly had to unbutton every top button just to get some breathing room. But if I wore a larger size, the butt would literally sag and look oversized on the rest of my body.

It’s like I need a stretchy band kind of skinny jean for girls with no curves except in the belly area!!

Which.. does not exist from what I can see.

(Correction: exists in maternity wear, but.. I feel a bit odd buying clothing when I’m not actually pregnant)

When I met BF, he said he wasn’t thrilled at how skinny I was, and immediately fed me buttery pies and cakes for a whole year before I gained 20 pounds before he was satisfied that I didn’t look underfed even though I was clearly eating more than he was, pound for pound.

(Underfed? Me?!!!?)

But a guy who can cook like a chef, that WANTS me to gain a bit of weight? Sign me up!

And he loves my belly (it’s his favourite part). I found it interesting that all of my life, I was running away from having this belly, hating what it was and wishing desperately I had toned abs like those fitness models in magazines…. only to meet a guy who wanted that very feature in a girl.

I definitely feel curvier now. Which is something I keep to myself, because my sister is definitely curvier than I am, and she laments about her body to me all the time and rolls her eyes at me when I tell her that I’ve gained weight.

I had to step on a scale to prove it to her!

I keep telling her she looks fine, she just has to love her body and stop wearing things that make her look and feel fat. In my opinion, she doesn’t wear enough dresses to show off her hourglass shape and she chooses the wrong materials and sizes.. but I’m not always there to go shopping with her to give her honest critique.

As for my putting on weight, it’s just that my body distributes weight more evenly across all the parts. I don’t just put on weight on my butt or my thighs, but a larger amount does go to my belly.

Now, I love having a belly and I find it cute, but I think it’s sad that it took me so long to appreciate having one, and that it took someone else to appreciate that body part for me to change my mind.