Confession: I flew all the way to Hawaii about a year and a half ago and had the chance to surf but I chickened out. It was October, the waves were huge and I didn’t feel like I belonged in a bikini much less falling off a board in one and risking embarrassing myself. I was overweight, unhealthy and had zero self confidence.
Looking back at how bad I felt makes me wish someone had showed me Kayla Itsines guide a long time ago. Since then, I have gained my confidence back (still have a ways to go though), have lost inches off my waistline and finally feel comfortable in my own skin for the first time in a long long time.
I still have no idea how to surf but I’m a great learner. I’m decent at snowboarding due to the endless hours of riding with a wolfpack of boys in my college years and can hang pretty well on a long board. The fear I have of surfing has nothing to do with my potential talent, though I’m sure I’ll suck at first 😂. The fear comes from being exposed, in a bikini, in front of…anyone. I still feel that intense fear of being judged.
So I’m posting this to get real with you guys. You can workout all you want, you can eat healthy, lose the weight and have an almost perfect body like a Victoria secret model but if you don’t work on losing the bad state of mind, you’ll always feel less that what you truly are.
Goal: this summer I will get in a bathing suit and learn to surf.
I’ll face my fear and smile while doing it. I’ll show myself as well as everyone else that I can conquer anything if I put my mind to it.
My challenge for you is to face a fear this year in some way. Decide what your fear is, post it on your Instagram for everyone to see and then conquer it. We are women, hear us roar!! Get out there and show everyone the strong, beautiful and lovely person you are, fit or not, overweight or not, and confident or not.
I had someone tell me one time that if you lack confidence, sometimes you have to fake it until you make it. I didn’t believe it then but I do now. Sometimes you have to push yourself and love yourself in order for your feelings about yourself to change. I can’t wait to share my surfing experience with you all, and the dreaded surf bikini too. Hopefully by then I’ll have developed an ab or two but if not, I’ll still feel like a million bucks because I’ll be doing something the old me would have never done!