There is a trend doing the rounds on Instagram where you go back and meet your lot younger self in a coffee shop and you show them how well you have done and how you needn’t have worried about all the things you were struggling with at the time.

I decided to do it but with a twist and I wanted to share it with you here, because I have a feeling it is something we have all been guilty of.

I went for a walk on the beach and met my younger self…No, I haven’t lost the plot—I didn’t actually time travel. But I had a moment on the beach that hit me like a hungry seagull aiming for my chips….”I told her “I wish I was that fat now!”

She told me she was fat, she hated how big her legs and stomach felt. She was dieting, counting calories, sins and points, standing on scales in village halls in the middle of winter in her summer dress, only to be told she had put a pound on.

She felt miserable and hated her body.

The truth is, she was fit and strong and at a perfectly healthy weight…it’s just such a shame she never saw it at the time….in fact she never saw it for years after that.

It’s only when I met her on the beach today that I saw it for myself. She was perfect as she was.

You will never get that time back, wishing you were something different. All those times we thought we were fat, because outside influence from diet culture made us feel ‘less than’ and all those years wasted thinking we were bigger than we thought we were.

I think we have all looked back on a photo from years ago, when we thought we were overweight.

We were probably trying our hardest to lose weight, by dieting, counting calories, sins or points, just so we could get in our skinny jeans.

This trend usually looks back on your younger self and reassures them by telling them how far you have come and how much you have achieved.

I want to highlight that you already had so much , you already had exactly what you wanted…you just didn’t take the time to notice.

In another 30 years, you could see this trend again.

For me I will be 85 and I know I want to look back on me now at 55, knowing that I fully appreciated my whole body now. Its strength, size and how I can move freely.

A reminder to not waste another second wishing you could be what you were, or what you think you should be.

If we are lucky, old age will come…it is a gift.

Appreciate your amazing body right now…even if it’s for the simple fact it woke up and got you out of bed this morning.

Big love, then, now and in the future.