When beach season approaches after a long, dark winter, breaking out that bikini you haven’t worn for the better part of a year can be intimidating.
Body-positive blogger Sarah Sapora can relate: She hasn’t worn a bikini in 25 years, since she was 13 years old.
Now, the 38-year-old plus-size wellness blogger is rocking a sexy turquoise two-piece on her Sarah Plus Life blog and Instagram account. But Sarah admits it wasn’t an easy process to get to where she is today. When both of her parents were hospitalised in 2015, Sarah tells Women’s Health US that she felt inspired to make a change. “At that moment, the reality of my own health became a very real thing,” she says. “I was unable to walk a single city block to get to my mom’s hospital bed without stopping in pain; I knew I had to do something.”
That’s when she decided to start a health journey that she says started from “the inside out.” “When I treat my body with respect by eating regular meals that are balanced, I feel better physically,” Sarah says. “When I do an activity, strength train and exercise, I feel more energised and vibrant.”
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Since then, Sarah says she’s lost 74 pounds—but the non-scale victories she’s experienced are even more satisfying than the new numbers she’s seeing on the scale. “Today, I can conquer six flights of stairs in 54 seconds, leg press more than twice my body weight, and am dangerously close to doing unassisted full-body pushups,” she says. “I am more peaceful, more joyous, more balanced, and more excited about the possibilities in my life than I have ever been as an adult!”
With that came the confidence she needed to “smash through” the old limitations that prevented her from wearing a bikini. “I was held back by my OWN limiting belief that I was not worthy or comfortable wearing [a bikini],” Sarah says.
Now, Sarah says, “I know my body is a strong, flawed, beautiful work-in-progress and I choose to celebrate it every step of the journey!”
When we asked if she’s ever felt pressure to conform to the traditional concept of a “bikini body,” which Women’s Health banned from its covers in 2015, she says she’s learned that, “When we look to others to tell us that we are ‘acceptable’ then it is literally a prescription to feel unworthy in our own life. Only WE get to decide how we feel about ourselves!” She adds, “If other people are uncomfortable with my body in a bathing suit, that is not a reflection of my worth but of their perception of the value of my body.”
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Sarah’s honest and inspiring post is a welcome addition to other body-positive swimsuit moments so far this year. From Ashley Graham’s Baywatch-themed shoot to 63-year-old Christie Brinkley’s Sports Illustrated, we’ve seen some amazing strides toward celebrating women’s bodies of all shapes, sizes, and ages.
Sarah says she hopes her posts will inspire other women to embrace their bodies, too. “Confidence is a choice we have to make every day,” she tells Women’s Health. “We are never going to stop experiencing things in life that can make us feel insecure; we can’t control things. But we CAN decide how we deal with those feelings when they come up.”
Preach!
This article originally appeared on WomensHealthmag.com
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