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  • #FreeFromDiets Phase 2: it’s all happening!

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How to survive bad body image during lockdown

March 24, 2020 Leave a Comment

It took just two days for the memes to start. The fat jokes nestled innocently amongst pictures of people stockpiling loo roll and singing on balconies, providing all the LOLz to a world quickly succumbing to COVID-19. For many, it seems the one thing worse than getting the virus is getting fat during quarantine.

And in between the memes and the blatant fatphobia there are a million home workouts encouraging us not to use the world crisis as an excuse to “get lazy” (i.e. put on weight) and a million other influencers offering up “immunity boosting” recipes that promise to not only protect you from catching the virus but keep your abs on point too. Diet culture disguised as wellness is nothing new, but you’d think it would give us a break while the world is on its knees.

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This is going to make thousands of kids happier – and you can help

I rarely come on here at the moment. It's not a planned thing, it's a time thing. Juggling various different projects (all of which I love, but all of which take time!), working many hours a week, leaves little time to create the type of content on here that I'd like. But I couldn't let this month ... read more

Body image workshops for teachers and other anti-diet wish-list must-haves

On a rainy, cold, dark and dreary day two weeks ... read more

Kids school photos are being airbrushed, and it is not OK

On a late-night scroll through Twitter last night ... read more

#FreeFromDiets Phase 2: it’s all happening!

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Hello and welcome! I'm Molly Forbes - podcaster, presenter and blogger with a passion for positivity, confidence and body image chat. Regularly writing and vlogging about empowering female issues from a motherhood angle, I also cover lifestyle and fashion topics for like-minded mums who want to rediscover themselves after having children. Thanks for stopping by! Read More…

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On Friday I shared a post about filters. I’m res On Friday I shared a post about filters. I’m resharing this post again now with a different photo, but I want to first explain WHY I took Friday’s post down. In the photo my daughter was not wearing a top. Someone messaged saying it concerned them. I feel strongly that children (particularly girls) are told early on to hide their body and their body’s are sexualised from an early age - even school uniforms tend to be about making girls’ bodies acceptable when we should be teaching boys that girls bodies don’t exist as ornaments. No body should ever be policed. This is why I didn’t think twice about sharing the photo, because my daughter is 5 and it was an innocent photo showing a fun moment. HOWEVER, there is something to be said for consent, and my daughter is not old enough to explicitly give her consent for that photo to be shared (there’s something to be said about this in general tbh - I always ask both my kids before I share photos of them, but I might rethink having photos of them on here completely in the future... the jury is out.) So now that’s clear, here’s the original caption from Friday’s post:
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In 2018 scientists coined a new illness called Snapchat Dysmorphia after cosmetic surgeons reported a rise in the number of people asking to be turned into the digitally filtered version of themselves. 
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We live in an age where kids aren’t just comparing themselves to the photoshopped images of celebs in magazines, they also need to live up to the digitally altered versions of their best mates.
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Even Zoom has a beauty filter. When we should be chatting to our mates or sharing ideas on a work call we’re being encouraged to airbrush our face lest anyone sees what it *really* looks like.
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But newsflash! Skin has pores and lines and spots - and that’s OK! I want my kids to know this, which is why I’m supporting @sashalouisepallari #FILTERDROP call to action to share an unfiltered selfie. We need to normalise the unfiltered. ❤️
I flipped out at my family today. Shouted a bit, t I flipped out at my family today. Shouted a bit, then stormed out the house and stomped down the road crying big snotty tears. They hadn’t done anything particularly, just failed to be in tune to my rising internal stress pressure cooker and asked me for a biscuit / where the kitchen scissors are / how to log onto Zoom at the exact moment I was trying to simultaneously craft an important email and finish writing a sentence on something else that had been alluding me all day. My brain is full. I snapped. And I felt bad. 
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Instead of beating myself up about it I took myself off for a walk. Reminded myself that homeschooling full time and working full time and mothering full time is basically an impossible job. And decided to give myself a break.
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Self-compassion doesn’t come easy for me. It’s one of the things I’m working on. I have a habit of obsessing over things I haven’t done as well as I should and often setting myself impossibly high standards. Since lockdown it’s been worse, as I’ve found my brain has done this thing of thinking and overthinking interactions from years gone by, often at 3am, when it really needs to be having a rest and preparing for the Groundhog Day ahead.
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One thing I’ve managed not to do this whole lockdown though is be mean to my body. Instead of pulling at it in the mirror or trying to force it into clothes that feel too tight, or denying its hunger cues, I’ve dressed it in joyful, bright, soft, comfy things. I’ve soaked it in sweet smelling bubbles. I’ve nourished it with delicious food. In days gone by this would not have been the case. So while today was challenging, and self-compassion doesn’t come easy, maybe I’ve learned and grown more over the past few years than my 3am brain gives me credit for. Maybe. 
#bodyhappymum
I read a press release recently that was using the I read a press release recently that was using the pandemic to push diet products to children, under the guise of health. It was suggesting parents give kids a specific zero calorie snack to stop them putting on weight in lockdown and prevent them contributing to the “health crisis” facing the NHS. 
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But you know what’s bad for health that the press release didn’t mention? Inequality, weight stigma and discrimination. Diet brands are telling parents the way to “fix” their kids’ health is to “fix” their bodies. But maybe the answer is to fix society instead. Then again, that’s not how we shift “skinny” snacks or teabags or “jabs” or whatever the latest “health” (diet) craze is that is propping up the multi-billion dollar diet industry 🙄. 
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And if you’re interested in how diet culture impacts kids then you might like to listen to the chat I had with @conniesimmonds on her Growing Up Female podcast a few weeks ago. We talked about the #FreeFromDiets campaign, the insidious nature of some of the messages telling kids that one type of body is better than another, body image in lockdown and the impact of inequality on health. Swipe for a snippet ❤️.
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#FreeFromDiets #bodyimage #bodylove #bodyhappykids
Last week we hosted five body happy kids workshops Last week we hosted five body happy kids workshops for around 50 teachers and youth leaders, offering an introduction to the subject of body image and kids, explaining another perspective on health (tip: despite what many of the newspaper headlines and politicians tell us, it’s complicated, and weight stigma is very very bad for health) and giving some clear, practical ways for adults to create spaces that foster positive body image for the kids in their setting. We have a few spaces left on our July 9th workshop which will be hosted by @amysnellingpt . Click the link in my bio to sign up!
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What you get:
⭐️ 1 hour interactive workshop (delivered via Zoom)
⭐️ Workshop notes booklet over 2,500 words long with further reading and resources
⭐️ Extended Body Happy Kids activity pack to use in lessons and extra-curricular sessions with children (can be adapted to suit all ages)
⭐️ Attendance certificate for CPD journals.
And the total cost? A bargain at a subsidised rate of £25 🎉 Swipe ➡️ to read some testimonials from some of our lovely workshop attendees. Know a teacher or youth worker? Pass it on! 💕 #BodyHappyKids [Logo designed by the wonderful @aceandping]
Yesterday we celebrated 10 years of Freya and Yesterday we celebrated 10 years of Freya 🎉 and I reflected on 10 years of motherhood 💕 Still learning new things every day. Still often winging it. I guess this doesn’t end though, right?! .
(Swipe for Freya’s first day... and an outtake photo with her sister who had a bad case of the birthday envy. It’s hard when you’re five and it’s your sister’s birthday!) #mumlife
Bought this book for the kids and it’s so full o Bought this book for the kids and it’s so full of joy it deserves a place on the grid too. It blows my mind that when I went to school Section 28 was a thing - and up until just 17 years ago it was illegal for schools and councils in the UK to “promote the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship.” WTAF? Love is love. The end. 🌈 (ID: Queer Heroes book by Arabelle Sicardi, illustrated by Sarah Tanat-Jones)
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