25/08/2026
I’ve been mulling this one over for a while but whenever I’ve been back to Portugal, I always had comments about my weight, whatever it was. But this was the first time that didn’t happen. Coincidentally, it was also the first holiday EVER, teenage years included, where I felt comfortable in myself. Not because any of it is perfect, I just genuinely stopped caring
I wanted to eat all the food I missed, drink all the juice (read green wine) and enjoy it all. I embraced being bloated, water retention being through the roof, the melasma on my face coming out in full force while still raw do***ng wearing no make up at all to hide it. It allowed me to create unforgettable memories free from anxiety about what people thought about what I looked like while doing it
The truth is I used to dread being in swimwear, whatever weight I was. I know, shocker. Difficult when you come from a country where summer revolves around wearing less clothes. Realistically, there’s never been anything wrong with how I looked, but a lot with how I felt. But this holiday it dawned on me: I don’t judge what others look like, so why do I care what they think about me? It’s just a body. And if they judge, that says far more about them than it says about me and how I look
Now, has wild swimming helped build my confidence in swimwear? Definitely. People have loved to judge what I post here. Do I pick aesthetically pleasing snippets from swims? Of course. We all choose the nice photo. But sharing confident moments doesn’t mean never feeling insecure. And whatever you post or look like, there’ll always be someone with something to say. So you might as well live your life
So, maybe body confidence isn’t waking up thinking you’re perfect. It’s looking exactly as you do and deciding you’re going for a dip anyway, regardless of what others think
I’ve worked really hard on my mindset to learn how to show up for myself this way and to be kinder to myself. I’ll make absolutely no apologies for that. And neither should anyone else. Your body doesn’t have to be the best it’s ever looked for you to have the best time you’ve ever had in it 🖤
