Curvy Confident Boot Camp By Sarah Taylor – Part One

This past Tuesday evening I had the absolute pleasure and honour of attending the first ever Curvy Confident Boot Camp hosted by the lovely Sarah Taylor who graciously accepted to pose in a picture with me. Yes she’s tall and I’m super short (I need a box or two to stand on when posing for pictures with beautiful models like Sarah).

Sarah is a plus size model, Miss Plus Size Canada 2014/2015, a body positive advocate, motivational speaker, blogger, mentor and editor for FabuPlus magazine (the first print magazine dedicated to plus size women – find it almost anyplace where magazines are sold). She is a force of inspiration who motivates women everywhere to love themselves and see their true beauty regardless of the number on the scale.

Sarah began the evening by sharing her very personal story of a young girl who because of her size believed she wasn’t worthy or good enough and subsequently led a life that was beneath what she deserved. She settled in all areas of her life because she truly believed she didn’t deserve anything better. I think I speak for all the women she touches today, that we are glad and grateful she woke up and saw her potential and set out on a journey to reclaim her self-worth and self-love! To learn more about Sarah check out her website http://www.sarahtaylorsjourney.com/ or her FaceBook page Sarah Taylor’s Journey @sarahtaylorsjourney

After sharing her story, Sarah led us through several activities to help us on our own personal journeys to self-love and curvy confidence. We began the session with filling out an I Am positive statement list. We had to fill a blank page with the title I Am at the top, with positive statements about ourselves; things we like about our appearance, who we are, what we have accomplished and what we are working on to improve. My list looked like this:

I Am:

• beautiful
• inspirational
• kind
• dependable
• trustworthy
• a good writer
• a supportive mother
• a loving wife
• resilient
• loyal
• thoughtful
• sexy
• curvy
• intelligent
• creative
• unique
• spiritual
• valuable
• a devoted daughter
• a caring friend
• stylish
• love my eyes
• love my hair
• still working on loving my tummy and chubby chin

This is not the first time I’ve done an activity like this but it’s still an empowering one. When I first tried to make a list like this about a year ago, it was difficult to think of things to write but with each time I do this task it becomes easier. My list comes to mind quicker and it continues to grow bigger. With my growing list, my confidence, self -esteem and self-love grows with it.

Another activity we did was “Mirror, mirror, on the wall”. Standing in front of a mirror with a partner behind us, we had to take turns and look at our reflection and point out the things we saw in ourselves that were beautiful. Our partner then had to point out some things we may have missed. Many times you look at yourself and can’t see beauty. It’s empowering to know that even when we don’t always see or acknowledge our own beauty, other people do see and appreciate all the beauty that we are inside and out.

Next we learned how to walk with confidence; stand, walk and talk with your head high, shoulders back and down and smile. Walk with your eyes looking forward towards where you are going, never down. We did a runway walk, taking turns at being models, strutting our stuff and flaunting our curvalicious bodies. It was fun seeing women celebrating their bodies and looking confident for probably the first time in a long time. Sarah cultivated a safe haven in which we felt loved, appreciated and secure in participating in activities that may have otherwise been very intimidating.

I’m going to end my first instalment of our Boot Camp here. The evening consisted of so much inspiration, I feel to do it justice, I will break it up into several posts. I hope you try some of the activities I outlined above.

Until next time, Be Pretty, Plus and Proud of all your curves! Flaunt, celebrate and love yourself!