Rock your size! Fatima Zara Mallick

Fatima Zara Malllick, ( CEO at FZM Boutique Fitness and an actress/model) talks about body activism and why it’s high time we start loving the skin we are born in!

As a trainer and health coach, I’m bombarded with questions about diet, quick fixes and easy solutions to shrink before the next party/wedding/vacation. Usually, the desperation to look ‘skinny’ comes from a place of self-loathing and the erroneous notion that life starts only after you fit into size two jeans!
That’s why I say loving your body is true rebellion. It’s about radical self-love despite society’s idea of beauty! It means accepting your body, curves, rolls, lumps, bumps, and believing it is as worthy as the body on a billboard in front of you! It’s not about whether or not you can look like the girl in a brand add, it’s about why you would even want to aspire to that?That brings us to the crucial topic of ‘body positivity.’ In a conformist society like ours, beauty is defined as fair skin, coloured eyes and a slender frame. But it is not about fair, dark, fat or thin anymore. Those words are labels or adjectives: they have no power unless we ascribe power to them! There should be no shame in being naturally skinny or daringly bodacious. Body positivity is a frame of mind, not a minding of the frame. It’s about how you feel about your body, regardless of size. I know women who are a size 0 and unhappy in their skin, and women who are a size 20 but fearless, happy and living life unapologetically.

Being in the field of fitness, I constantly try to put out the idea that your body is your friend. Don’t be ashamed of it: love it and nourish it as opposed to hating it for not looking like a photo-shopped picture of someone else.
Fitness is a beautiful way to explore the great strengths your body is capable of and to transform it as you prefer. But the decision to alter your body in any way needs to come from a place of self-acceptance and gratitude. When we make peace with our body and the body of others, we turn the world into a more compassionate place. Strong is beautiful in all shapes, sizes, colours and ethnicities!