Mum shares empowering photo of her stretch marks and cellulite

For Meghan Boggs, the number on the scale had always been the difference between a good day and a bad day.

After years of struggling with her weight, the wife and stay-at-home mum who runs a successful blog, has finally set herself free – and wants other women to do the same.

Meghan has never been shy about her weight loss journey. In 2014, the then-newlywed was told by her doctor that she was too overweight to have children, sparking an 36kg weight loss and new love of weight training.

She became pregnant in 2017, and regained some of the weight through pregnancy, but says she is learning to love and appreciate her body as a result.

In a new Instagram post, Meghan shared a powerful image of her stretch marks and opened up aout her struggle to accept her post-baby body with her more than 36,000 followers.

View this post on Instagram

I used to weigh myself every morning. I would always make sure to go to the bathroom first. There would be a rush of anxiety as the scale blinked while I stared down in anticipation. It was the moment that would depict how I approached my day. Would I be positive and embrace the day happily because the number was a whole .1 lower than yesterday morning? Or would I angrily start brushing my teeth and threaten myself to only eat a salad for today because the number was a whole .1 higher than yesterday? This was how I lived. It was destroying me. And I was completely convinced that this was the only way to be happy. This was the only way I would get to where I was supposed to be in order to become a mother. I repeated to myself that the only way to be happy was to be skinny. So I lost weight. And it never felt like it was enough. I worked out only to lose weight, rather than the way I do now where I focus more on how it makes me feel. But then I had Maci. For the first time, I felt thankful for my body. There was a moment after she was born that I stood in the hospital bathroom just before I took my first postpartum shower. I was only in my robe as I stared into the mirror. I almost remember it in slow motion because I had avoided a mirror for years, even throughout most of my pregnancy. Locking eyes with myself, I tugged the string and the robe separated a few inches. I froze for a few seconds before I let the robe fall down to the ground. And there I was. I saw me for what felt like the very first time, but after another few seconds, I closed my eyes. I turned around and walked towards the shower. This moment was just the beginning of my self-love journey. It doesn’t happen quickly. But it never would have happened had I not tried. 💗 #this_is_postpartum

A post shared by meghan (@meg.boggs) on Nov 27, 2018 at 12:40pm PST

“I used to weigh myself every morning. I would always make sure to go to the bathroom first,” Meghan said.

“There would be a rush of anxiety as the scale blinked while I stared down in anticipation… Would I be positive and embrace the day happily because the number was a whole 0.1 lower than yesterday morning? Or would I angrily start brushing my teeth and threaten myself to only eat a salad for today because the number was a whole 0.1 higher than yesterday.”

Like many people, Meghan says she held on to the belief that the only way she could be happy was to lose weight – which she did.

“I worked out only to lose weight, rather than the way I do now where I focus more on how it makes me feel,” she continued. “But then I had Maci. For the first time I felt thankful for my body.”

Meghan Boggs. Image via Instagram.
Meghan Boggs. Image via Instagram.

Meghan says it was after her daughter was born, and she went to have her first postpartum shower that she began the journey of accepting her body in all its forms.

“I almost remember it in slow motion because I had avoided a mirror for years, even throughout most of my pregnancy,” she said. “I saw me for what felt like the very first time, but after another few seconds I closed my eyes. I turned around and walked towards the shower. This moment was just the beginning of my self-love journey. It doesn’t happen quickly. But it never would have happened had I not tried.”

Meghan Boggs. Image via Instagram.
Meghan Boggs. Image via Instagram.

Now, Meghan is using social media to spread body positivity and connect with people through sharing her story and normalising all shapes and sizes of beauty.

“My self-love journey has been all over the place,” she said.

“It’s taken writing, photos and simple mirror meetings with myself. I’ve had empowering days and I’ve had days I crumble at the thought of trying to dress up, much less share a photo. But that’s the thing. It’s a constant journey and always evolving.”

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