cried when I first saw this photo, and I cried again when I found it the other day."
We came across this beautiful image and post of Hally Valentina and had to share her words!
Y’all think I’m playing when I talk about vulnerability?
Here you have it. My stomach has always been the most absolute hated part of my body. To put it on display like this is something I never EVER thought I’d do in this lifetime.
But It only dawned on me that 3 years ago, on the 16th of August 2016 I had my gastric sleeve and I put this stomach through the most excruciating experience that completely changed my life.
When you look at my stomach you see it covered in stretch marks, you see a droopy belly button and surgery scars.
When I look at my stomach I see:
- a survived tumor
- healing of an “incurable” hormonal disorder
- three extreme abdominal surgeries
- beat the battle with obesity
- avoided diabetes
- made it through 9 weeks of drip feeding after complications from my Gastric Sleeve
- surviving the hell I put it through with every weight loss method under the sun
And after all that, all the trauma I inflicted, it still healed, it still worked, it still released 50kg (110lb for y’all playing outside of Australia) to allow me to absolutely thrive.
THIS STOMACH HAS NEVER FAILED ME ONCE!
I’m not gonna sit here and say I completely love my stomach now, because that would be a lie. Yes I preach self love, yes I love my body, but self love is yourself as a whole, self love isn’t measured by how much you love parts of your body!
But I’ll be damned if I didn’t look at my stomach without pure amazement and praise it for all that it has endured and SURVIVED.
We’re in a place where self love, body love and body positivity is all the rage, but if you’re struggling to love your body and you feel guilt for that in itself, I see you.
I want you to look at your body, without the pressure of having any form of opinion about it.
Look at your body and straight up acknowledge it for all that it has carried you through. Speak it out loud and write it all down.
Then tell me how you feel about your body.
Here are more beautiful pics of Hally to enjoy.
To see more of Hally pls visit her on insta @Lovehally
