Tips for a better body image outlook

Hi ladies! So I have always had a hard time with my body image. There have been moments when I felt good and others where I am pretty mean to myself. It took my husband and I 18 months to get pregnant while we were dealing with the most stressful family trauma. During this time I gave up on my body working and put on some weight. To our surprise we ended up pregnant, and I keep kicking myself for not taking better care of my body to have started off at a better weight.

So now I am 18+3 and so so happy and grateful for this little baby. But I find myself not able to really enjoy my growing belly and body like I thought I would. I know putting on weight is normal and healthy for the baby, and I am for that and am not doing anything to harm that. But it’s messing with my head. I’ll feel fine all day, and maybe even a little cute and then someone will take a picture of me and I just want to cry when seeing myself. I beat myself up for not being healthy constantly or working out. And I know those are things I can control and change, but honestly, it’s hard.

I hate that I can’t shake this and just love my body. I am so amazed at so many beautiful women of all shapes and sizes and how they just own their bodies. And I want to feel like like to. Not just fake it, but feel it. Especially because I don’t want to ever project this on to my baby and give them the same mindset.

So if you could please be nice, I know it all sounds horrible. But I could really use a few tips to help me work on this.

Thank you!