On Wearing What You Want, and Owning What You've Got

I truly try to live my life without regret, but one thing I catch myself regretting from time to time is not wearing whatever I wanted when I was younger and being prouder of my body! In today's post I'm wearing a crop top and booty-accentuating shorts, and you wouldn't have caught me in that even in college. Looking back I had such a good body and no thought of cellulite, but barely took advantage of that - such a shame!

Since I "filled out" through college I've been soooo self conscious about the fact that my upper half and lower half seem to be on different pages size-wise. If I slim down and lose weight, it shows in my stomach, ribs, boobs and arms. Not a lot I can control for the half I would change if I could 😲 

But why am I so self conscious about having a booty and muscular legs? I guess partly because I don't have the boobs to "balance" them out and don't have the stick skinny fashion physique I've envied since high school. I'm working hard to get over this though! Instead I want to be proud of having muscle that shows off my hard work, proud of my flat stomach, and proud to have some curves. I know that in 10, 20, 30+ years I'll look back on this season of life and think about how good and young and healthy I looked and wish that I had appreciated my body more...like I already do about the past 8-10 years.

So, one of my mindset goals for this year and moving forward is to wear what I want, and to just own and be proud of what I've got. It would be a shame to never show the ab definition and flat stomach I've been working really hard on just because I don't have the exact butt or thighs I want.

Top (c/o | matching shorts here)  |  Shorts  |  Slides  |  Sunglasses (more Quay here)  |  Lipstick ('velvet teddy')

 I hope this post ended up making at least a little bit of sense. I feel like I had a lot of pent-up thoughts to spill out here so I very well may have rambled without making much sense 😉

Also, please know that I truly find all women beautiful. My friends and family represent a variety shapes and sizes and 'looks' and I find them to all be the most beautiful and healthy and inspiring women in the world! I just thought I would open up to you a bit about things I've struggled with mentally for many years in hopes that you will [in your own time] start to better accept your own body [if that's a goal of yours] and to just wear what you want to wear! I'm also not looking for attention or compliments or anything like that by writing this post. I'm just actively working on my body confidence, and thought it might be a relatable topic :) 

I recently updated my About Me page to say "The purpose behind Love, Lenore is to not only share my love of all things fashion + lifestyle, but to also help you and other women discover your own personal style and beautiful life that you love regardless of your budget or where you live or what you look like." I want to live that out more on this space, and I hope you're up for taking that journey with me.

xx