Ethiana's Breaking Free Story

From a young age, I always struggled with my body image and hated how people constantly told me how tiny I was. I have always been an active girl but no matter how much I ate I just could not gain weight. Fast-forward to 2018, after putting lots of effort into eating well and becoming more involved in fitness, I finally reached the weight that I have been wanting for a very long time. Then I found out I was pregnant.

"I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t concerned about how my body would look after I had my daughter. However, I feel like this is a very common concern/fear in pregnancy."

After I had my daughter, I drastically lost weight. I mean I dropped like 20 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight. People would comment about how I “snapped back” and even though this was supposed to be a compliment, the truth was that I was right back to square one. I was right back into the state of being “too tiny” which was a state that I fought for so long in my childhood/teenage years. I hated it. 

"During these times, I would affirm to myself how beautiful the woman’s body is. How beautiful MY body was for bringing earth side my beautiful, healthy baby girl."

I practiced a lot of positive self-talk, or you may call it mind talk. I truly believe that it was this positive mind-talk that was the beginning of me breaking out my “shell”. Not only that, but I continued to remind myself how many changes my body just went through in the matter of nine months! Not only my body, but how my entire life shifted and the centre of my world became my daughter. As

I continued to adjust to becoming a new mom, I also found myself growing as a person. I was discovering myself all over again; what I liked, what I didn't like, what my hobbies and passions were etc. I stopped caring what others thought and began to surround myself only around people who I felt good around and supported me.

As much as I focused on my daughter, I also focused on myself, I began to make my self-care a priority and found a true passion in cooking. I stepped out of my comfort zone and started a website to share my story and experiences with other new moms. I started to love the person I am and be confident and genuinely happy. With that, I began to love my body!!