When the Chub Rub Hits

If you caught this week's All Of The Snacks episode with myself and Lucy, you'll know that I've been planning a thread talking about how to find comfort in your body this summer. What I didn't anticipate was it being the hottest week of the year so far. Lottie Drynan characterised inner-thigh chaffing as being akin to shredding parmesan on a very aggressive grater. 100% accurate.

Having a body is hard; having a body in various states of undress in the sweltering heat while trying to manage sweat and flesh and hair and not just melting into a puddle on the floor is a fucking nightmare.

And it's not just the physical side of things. No matter how much work we've done to externalise bullshit body standards, the heat has a peculiar way of making all of the insecurities rise to the surface. Without a doubt, summer is the time of year my clients seem to be most activated around their bodies. And why wouldn't they be? If you lived through 90s diet culture, it's honestly a wonder you can get yourself out of bed in the morning. And it's not as like we've moved on from picking apart bodies since then. I just had a cursory glance at the Women's Health magazine homepage and saw ONE woman who was above a UK size 10. Also, IDGAF about Tess Daly's workout so fuck off. And in the UK Amazon top 20 book charts, SEVEN of the books are diet books (or diet adjacent, looking at you CvT). Side note: if you want some non-diet book recs, check out the CIHAS bookstore.

And of course, we learn to punish our bodies for not conforming to these exacting standards: we obsess about exercise, we start micromanaging what we eat, our heads are filled with food rules and arbitrary ideas about 'good' and 'bad' foods. We miss out on the ice cream on the beach. We spend more time thinking about how to conceal our bodies than getting in the pool with our kids. We don't get in the photo on that summer vacation. We find ourselves in vicious cycles of restricting (usually pre-holiday) and binging (on holiday). Our kids see us picking apart our bodies, scrutinising the 'flaws' that don't actually exist but have been fabricated to sell us something. Our kids learn those body insecurities from us long before society ratifies them.