Accepting Yourself Naked

“Accepting yourself naked” is probably going to become an ongoing theme on this blog. Not here for nakedness but for giveaways instead? Check it out down below. (The giveaway has ended.)

Do you like to see yourself naked? If you do, then all the props to you! I want to be like you. For reals. Because quite honestly, a lot of the time I don’t love what I see in the mirror.

Because I’m fat. Yes, I’m going to use the F-word today. Not curvy, fluffy, chubby, plump, or any other euphemism. I’m FAT.

I have fat. Too much of it.

I’m not writing this because I want your sympathy, or your scorn. It’s just a fact. I can see it with my own eyes.

I’ve had to accept that this is who I am. I’m working towards having less fat, but I’ve been doing that my entire life and yet, still fat!

So I’ve changed my perspective. I don’t want to just lose weight. What I really want is to gain strength.

Because when I look in the mirror I want to see strong abs, not a flat stomach. I want to see a back that can pull this body up above the bar, not skinny arms. I want to see the outline of my quads, not a thigh gap.

To achieve that, my workouts are focused on strength training. I’ll get into that a bit more in future installments of “accepting yourself naked.”

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A post shared by Paulette Font-Erato (@pfont) on Sep 6, 2018 at 8:12am PDT

As my body morphs into the personification of strength I want it to be, I have to make clothes that fit where I am right now. Being a planner by nature (and, formerly, by vocation) the ability to plan my future garments is pretty helpful, and the reason I make and recap my sewing plans each month.

But being able to draw clothes for my body is a whole ‘nother animal. I’ve never been very good at drawing but when I heard about the MyBodyModel Kickstarter campaign, I was intrigued.

Erica Schmitz’s pitch was to create an application that would take your specific measurements and return a model drawing (a croquis) to those dimensions. Usually what you see in fashion books (and the cover of some pattern envelopes) is a long, skinny fashion drawing that is 9-11 heads tall. Few women fit that figure (for example, I’m less than 8 heads tall). And while there are croquis floating around that have larger girths, none of them necessarily have my waist at the right place, or the shoulders at the right width. And when trying to construct a garment to your body, it’s nice to be able to see the proportions of your body.

You know, your naked self.

Me. Naked.

Erica has worked so very hard on this project, and I’m proud to be a Kickstarter backer. Because being able to “see” your naked self on paper with the proper proportions does wonders for end planning.

If you’re interested in learning more about MyBodyModel, check out Erica’s website. It’s free to test drive and you’ll get access to resources like hair styles for your croquis, as well as some great videos on figure drawing if you join her newsletter.