The Bikini Thread

[Mimosa23]

Lady: YOU LOOK HOT!!!!!

WOW! what an achievement! I think you can definitely wear that bikini with pride! Well done and go shop for some more, just because you can!

I love Vix Bia bikini's... They are adjustable for cover by moving the clips on the side of the bottoms and at the top. I would love to wear one, right now would not be adviseable, LOL!

[gotsomeold]

Sophie, you have an exquisitely proportioned body.

If any bikini (or any other piece of clothing) does not look good on you, it is the fault of the suit. Just laugh at the designer and toss it aside.

With that tiny waist, I vote with Laranda - I wanna see you model a 50's retro look. That look covers what you want to cover, supports what needs supporting, and flaunts it all!

[marylouise]

Originally Posted by sophiethecat

It's time to bikini shop.

The thought of it is scaring me, but I know I need to find "the one" and I better start looking. I've had good luck finding nice suits at JCPenny the last several years, so I'm going to start there on Friday.

I'm not really in the mood to do this, but I know me... if I don't get my butt in gear and find something, I'll be looking last minute before the beach trip this June or July. PLUS, I figure if I get the suit now, I will be more motivated to get toned up and look my best in it if it's there hanging where I can see it everyday... how little material it is *gulp*...

I may just talk myself out of this if I'm not careful, lol.

I've worn bikinis before, but it takes a lot for me to shed my inhibition and not feel too self conscious in one. Usually I can manage this at the beach, when we are so far from home and I loosen up and find I don't really care what strangers are thinking, lol.

In fact, the last time I wore a bikini, it was summer 2009 and I was at least 15# heavier than I am now (was coming off SSRI weight gain AND one of the most stressful jobs I'd ever had). It was the most baring swimsuit I'd ever worn and I bought it at one of those shops along the beach when we got there. I was happy though - had just quit that job, was through the withdrawals of the SSRI, and on my way down the scale, and at the BEACH!! I didn't care so much what anybody thought, I just wanted to cut loose some and have fun, and I did.

Gradually over the rest of the summer, I went down to my normal "set-point" range from then on, which was the 140s.

But fast forward to last summer - 2011, the summer where I weighed the most ever!! In June last year, I snapped back to reality when I saw pics of myself from a trip to TX... those pics were my wake-up call about how big I'd really become. I started trying to lose weight with LC, but it wasn't going anywhere near as fast as I'd hoped.

Then my DH announced one day soon after my weight loss efforts had started, that he got vacation time and we were going to the beach! I was happy because I LOVE the beach, but scared too, because I was so big and I didn't have a suit. I found one at JCPenny that would work. A one-piece, of course. But I was so disheartened... I'd never had to shop in the "bigger" sizes before, and this suit was a Women's size 20! It was slightly big on me actually, but I got it anyway because it was so comfortable, the most covering, and good quality.

*Sigh* I felt so "old" and "big" in that suit at the beach. (It was a huge size *to me* since I'd never been that big, you understand.)

I still had a great time, but I only took a pic of myself from the shoulders up, lol. And a pic of my feet in the sand.

Well, that's in the past, and now on JUDDD and other IF, I'm maintaining below my old "set-point" of the 140s! Living here between 135 - 140, I'm at the lowest yet most consistent and healthy-looking weight range of my adult life. I used to weigh this back when I was 16 or 17 years old... but of course my body has changed since then (for one thing, I seem to have kept stacking it up on top over the years, though thankfully I'm back down a little, lol.)

What's left to do is buy the suit and tone up. Ugh. I don't do any exercise now except a couple minutes of gentle bouncing on the rebounder 1 to 3x per day. Thank goodness for JUDDD/IF's fat-burning, muscle-sparing effect or I'd be a blob, lol.

Oh, just wanted to add "WHY" re: The Bikini. It's kinda "a thing" to me to wear one at least one time this summer... I guess mentally because of several reasons. Just wanna look hot, is one. And look good in a bikini before I hit 4-0. And it's kind of a visual reminder to me that I am maintaining at a great weight for me, and I do not ever want to get big again.. so there will never be another struggle to lose and scramble to look good at the beach (or anywhere!), or dismay at shopping for swimwear or clothes. Well, you get the idea....

Anyway, sorry this became a novella. I guess I'll use the thread to update how "the search" goes, and include pics of what I find.

If anyone else wants to use this thread as a journal of their own swimsuit search (doesn't have to be a bikini!), feel free! Or post pics of suits you find and like. Or talk about summer and bathing suits and the beach and all manner of summer-happy things.

Oh ---- before I posted this, I just had an idea and went and found that black "beach-shop" bikini and fearfully tried it on...

....then found an old pic of me from the summer I wore it on the beach. Posted below.

Summer 2009. Weight probably in the low to mid 150s. Notice the pose - that's me trying to hide my belly, lol. As mentioned above, this photo below was not my highest weight, but was taken over a year before I really started packing on the pounds and got up to at least 170# in winter 2010/spring 2011... (don't know how much higher I got than that because I refused to weigh myself).



April 4, 2012 The same suit as in 2009.



Back of suit (I cropped it so you won't be disturbed by cheeks hanging out, lol)



In case anybody wonders, I just don't think I can pull off this suit. Too much to deal with up top, as well as the amount of "rear work" I'd need to work on before I could wear it. And well, I'm lazy.

I do want something that's a true bikini though - no skirt bottom or tank top - but not too revealing on the top or bottom.

WOW LOOKING GREAT!!
My DH ask if you are married?

[sungoddess]

Well I agree with everyone else. ANY bikini would look awesome on that figure. You have a striking figure and if I had it, I wouldn't even wear a bikini. I would be strutting my stuff naked!! I would want everyone to share my divine given gift. My bikini days are long long over and were very short-lived when they did exist.
You've got it- flaunt it!

[sophiethecat]

I just had to take some time to really take all this in. Wow. I know my JUDDD buds are the best folks in the world, but the outpouring of and the things you said to build me up... You all are so kind...KIND beyond belief!!!!!

What is it about us that we pick ourselves apart? I've done this to myself my entire life. I mean, on JUDDD things have been greatly improving - I have been feeling better about myself than I EVER have... most recently coming to accept that I really can believe what the tape measure, the mirror, the clothes, the scale are saying about my size.

I guess I had one more hurdle, and that was for it to all click in place for my self-esteem. You guys were the catalyst for that in all these treasures of words you've said to me. << tears of and joy!

And yet I found myself still wanting to say, "But you can't see all the flaws that I do!" and "You can't see all the jiggle from still photos!" and "It had to be the lighting that made me look good - it was the lighting that made the difference!". And maybe all that is true to some degree, but I'll never look at myself in the same super-critical way that I used to again, now that I've been touched by the of my friends here. I am seeing myself in a whole new light.

I think we get used to seeing ourselves and maybe as women - being harsh on ourselves. Mental things get picked up by us and build up practically from the time we are little, and it can carry on and on and on through life. I know it did for me. Well, it ends here for me right on this JUDDD forum. There's been a process of shedding this mental garbage as I came to JUDDD and went along on it over the weeks and months, and I started feeling GREAT mentally & emotionally as well as physically. I was starting to take off for the final hurdle of body image, but thanks to you all and the uber-kindness and the way you made me see what you see and appreciate the one body and life I have... well, you cleared me of that hurdle in record time!

I simply must, MUST remember all this. I printed all your loving, uplifting, precious comments out and will keep them in a drawer by my bed to take out in days, months, years to come to remember this and help always reinforce this wonderful thing.

I never thought starting this "bikini" thread would turn into something so special for me. I didn't post the pics for praise - it was something I thought to do at the last second, and was afraid to do. I mean, I knew all of you would be good to me, but I saw skinny fat and other flaws and felt in no way prepared to bare anything, lol. But I trusted my JUDDD buds and I knew I was safe with you. Before I wasn't seeing myself the way I do now - thanks to you all. So it happened for a reason. Yes, I honestly know I still have some areas to tone - upper arms and hip/thigh region, but you've given me the confidence to know I am not NEARLY as far from where I want to be as I thought I was.

And I must say I forget that this isn't just our little JUDDD world of sister-friends, but that there is a whole world out there who might be looking in on us, lol, including guys.

Anyway, as I said, I never dreamed this "bikini thread" would turn into what it did for me. I want to thank EACH OF YOU again for what you've done for me with the power of your words!! It was that last hill to proper self-image and self-esteem and all that kind of thing that I needed to clear... my JUDDD buds got me there!!! Friends.

[Scotty]

Sophie As everyone has said, you look wonderful, and I agree.
LIke everyone does, you see places to work on that, believe me, nobody else sees. So work on them if it makes you feel great, but know that you have NOTHING to hide on the beach!!

[gotsomeold]

Self-image is a isn't it?

Okay dear, as sensei I am giving you a new mantra:

"No one sees the jiggle. I have made this journey and no one sees the jiggle. When I strut on the beach, grinning, in my itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny yellow polka-dot bikini, no one, but absolutely no one is going to care about the jiggle...except the little jiggle that makes the wiggle work"

[Luna Loca]

Originally Posted by gotsomeold

Sophie, you have an exquisitely proportioned body.

If any bikini (or any other piece of clothing) does not look good on you, it is the fault of the suit. Just laugh at the designer and toss it aside.

With that tiny waist, I vote with Laranda - I wanna see you model a 50's retro look. That look covers what you want to cover, supports what needs supporting, and flaunts it all!

What she said. Wear any and all suits with pride, and flaunt it for those of us who are cheering you on but can't flaunt ourselves (that would be me). You are lovely.

[2BoysMom]

I am absolutely GREEN with envy - you look STUNNING in that suit! If I looked that good in a bikini, you would never get it off of me!!!!

Wear it, strut it, flaunt it!

[mykidsteacher]

I'm so glad this thread helped you so much. (((hugs))) You've worked hard and deserve to be able to bask in the results.

Keep these pictures too. Take a good look at them. Ignore the fact that it is YOU. If one of US posted those pics, what would you say to her? I feel certain you wouldn't see any flaws either. Be as kind to yourself as you would be to one of us.

[Luna Loca]

Originally Posted by mykidsteacher

I'm so glad this thread helped you so much. (((hugs))) You've worked hard and deserve to be able to bask in the results.

Keep these pictures too. Take a good look at them. Ignore the fact that it is YOU. If one of US posted those pics, what would you say to her? I feel certain you wouldn't see any flaws either. Be as kind to yourself as you would be to one of us.

[maggielou66]

Originally Posted by Beeb

Oh, to be 38 again! I am below the weight I was at 38 but my body does not look anywhere near what it did then! I would be laughing so hard in the dressing room if I tried on a bikini that they would probably call security to see what was wrong and then security would be and I would laugh even harder!

Enjoy that wonderful, youthful body you have and I say buy several bikinis, all in different colors, shapes and sizes and show off that wonderful YOU!!

This reminds me of when I had to go to my brother-in-law's funeral and was in Wal-Mart trying on a spanx-type thing and got stuck in it! - I WAS laughing sooooooo hard I got lots of "looks" when I came out of that dressing room.

[maggielou66]

Sophie, you look totally AWESOME! I, too, am envious. I'm pretty much as small as you are, but still, I could NOT wear a bikini - I have too much baggy skin (left over from when I weighed about twice as much as you)!

Anyway, wear the black one with pride and any others that you buy - get one in each color and style that strikes your fancy!


I'm almost tempted to post a picture of me in my board shorts and tankini top - just to contrast how good you look!!!!!

[oropendola]

You look fabulous. It's time to shed black, get something outrageously colorful and show off your amazing bod!

[Sheridan]

Sophiethecat, you have a knock-out figure!


Everything you said about being super self critical is so true, and it's hard to accept compliments, really accept them in our head. It's different than accepting them in our heart (for me, anyway), because there's room for the "ya' buts"... "Ya', but they don't see the X (or Y or Z)." When we can finally accept compliments in our head, there is no room for the "ya' buts". Accepting it in our head is accepting something as fact. Facts are facts, no ya' buts. 1+1=2, no ya' buts about it, it's a fact.

Do something for me, please. Make it a point to look at yourself in the mirror, smile at yourself and say out loud, "I have a rockin', knock-out figure"! Because you DO, and you need to own that fact.

All my best!

[Kissa]

Sophie I am glad that tihis has helped you to realise what a really lovely body you have. You are a special to us all and always so quick to praise, support and help all of us.

It is good to think that we may have given you a lift.

[sunday]

Originally Posted by Sheridan

Sophiethecat, you have a knock-out figure!


Everything you said about being super self critical is so true, and it's hard to accept compliments, really accept them in our head. It's different than accepting them in our heart (for me, anyway), because there's room for the "ya' buts"... "Ya', but they don't see the X (or Y or Z)." When we can finally accept compliments in our head, there is no room for the "ya' buts". Accepting it in our head is accepting something as fact. Facts are facts, no ya' buts. 1+1=2, no ya' buts about it, it's a fact.

Do something for me, please. Make it a point to look at yourself in the mirror, smile at yourself and say out loud, "I have a rockin', knock-out figure"! Because you DO, and you need to own that fact.

All my best!

Great words and very important to embrace!!!

[maggielou66]

Sophie,

I found you an itsy, bitsy, teenie, weenie, yellow polka dot bikini!



But, I can't figure out how to get the picture of it on here. It's really cute too.