A Visit to Bikini Bottom

There is a magical land where everyone lives in a bathing suit and everyone is happy.  I love Spongebob and his friends, but that is not the Bikini bottom I am talking about. 

Do you remember when you were little and wearing a bathing suit meant a day filled with joy and happiness?  Somehow in the process of getting older, bathing suits began to lose their joy.  I began to worry about how I looked in a bathing suit.  Shopping for a bathing suit became a torturous chore, filled with harsh lighting from the dressing room showing off every bump and bulge. 

I realized that I did not always feel that way.  I used to swim and laugh and play, wearing my bathing suit all day long and not wanting to take it off.   I can also remember my girls wearing their bathing suits with that same joie de vivre.  They charged fearlessly into the water, they easily strolled along a beach, focusing on the sand and water, and searching for seashells, they did not obsess over how they looked in their bikini, but rather what exciting thing they would do next while wearing it. 

I am a fairly confident person, so I don’t let my weight issues affect my ability to go and have fun, but I do have to admit, those dressing room lights can still instill fear in me, thankfully once I am out doors I embrace my bikini bottom and the opportunities for fun that it brings.

I love to kayak

Or float down the Salt River on an inner tube

Or swim in the ocean

Or scuba dive with my hubby

I know that I don’t have the body of a super model (not even a plus size one) but that hasn’t stopped me from swimming with dolphins

…or holding a stingray

or just enjoying a day at the beach.

I can’t imagine missing out on all the wonderful activities I love to do in and near water simply because I don’t like how I look in my bathing suit.

Yes, I would love to have a slimmer body, and I am working on increasing my exercise so I can lose weight and be healthier, but I refuse to be a hostage to fear about how I look in a bathing suit – so even though I don’t have a ‘bikini bottom’ I will still go out in my bathing suit and enjoy myself.