Parenting

Mom's Amazing Before-And-After Photos Prove Happiness Isn't Determined By Size

by Cassandra Stone
Image via Instagram

Allison Kimmey is a body-positivity goddess and we can all learn from her

It’s high time the word “fat” is reclaimed from those who use it as an insult. Allison Kimmey, a mom, author, and all-around body-positive enthusiast is singlehandedly taking steps to change the way we think about the word.

Earlier this summer, an Instagram post of Kimmey’s went viral. In it, she shared an experience where her young daughter called her “fat.” Kimmey saw this as a teachable moment and had a meaningful discussion with her daughter where she told her we all have fat, in varying amounts. But that we’re all worthy of love and respect no matter what size we are.

Basically, Allison Kimmey rocks. Her Instagram account is one of the most inspiring, motivating places on the internet right now. She often shares stunning before-and-after photos, where she shares photos of her at her happiest. Not her thinnest.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYa6QWYHAUn/?taken-by=allisonkimmey

It’s so easy to fall into the trap of thinking our self-esteem issues will be solved if we just lost weight. That thinness is synonymous with happiness. Well, Kimmey is here to not only disrupt that notion, but destroy it altogether.

“A few years ago and a handful of dress sizes ago I believed the only way to be happy was to be thin,” she captions one of her transformation photos. “I held onto the belief that I wasn’t good enough just as I was because it protected me from seeing just how worthy and unstoppable I really was.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYHhs3qH12e/?taken-by=allisonkimmey

In each one of her Instagram posts, she doesn’t hold back. She talks about body issues, depression, sex, and her personal experiences with all of the above.

Her posts are beacons of hope and a driving force of motivation for many of her followers. Commenters flood Kimmey’s page to share their own experiences and how she’s inspired them:

You look so much happier in your after picture. I’m only in college, but you’re helping me set a framework for how I want to teach my future children. I love what you do and you’re educating so many of us. Thank you!!

Thank you for saying all this. You are such an inspiration!

You are so inspiring and beautiful. Thank you for being you and what you do 🙂

https://www.instagram.com/p/BX1XSceFX_c/?taken-by=allisonkimmey

Society makes us feel like if we wear plus-size clothes, we’re not as worthy or deserving of respect and love. It’s hard to shake a lifetime of that way of thinking, when it’s practically ingrained in us.

“You’ve spent your entire life believing the lies society has embedded in you, it will take time…a lot of time, to unlearn that behavior and step into the woman you’ve always been,” she writes.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BXla69slvHn/?taken-by=allisonkimmey

As a former “skinny” person myself, I struggle with syncing up how I feel about the person I am now to include the size I am now. Like Kimmey, I’m “living my best life now” and being thinner wouldn’t change a thing.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BXElJfCleAA/?taken-by=allisonkimmey

Kimmey proves being at peace with yourself is something your size can’t achieve for you.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWau9CkF8Er/?taken-by=allisonkimmey

How often do we see people touting crash diets and multi-level marketings schemes that only serve to shame and goad us into losing weight?

“Weight gain and loss do not and NEVER WILL equal happiness,” Kimmey writes. “The transformation I made is on the INSIDE. Something that never clicked with any 30 day program or 3 week quick fix or diet fad.”

AMEN. Seriously.Who says crash diets are healthy? How does a “quick fix” help our self-esteem and self-worth for the long haul?

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWs6wH4ltVT/?taken-by=allisonkimmey

“I chose to stop wasting my life believing that it couldn’t start until I had the perfect body and start believing that I am worthy of joy, love, opportunity, and respect right now.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BV25nlJl76C/?taken-by=allisonkimmey

Most, if not all, “transformation” photos we see plastered all over social media are of the “look how hard I worked to get super thin” variety. Kimmey is singlehandedly changing the status quo, proving that stereotypically thin people don’t own the transformation space on Instagram.

“After seeing one too many transformation Tuesday photos of a grumpy fat woman turning into a happy thin woman, I looked back at my own journey and realized it happened to be exactly the opposite of what we are taught to believe.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BVR36gXlqLt/?taken-by=allisonkimmey

I’ve been fat-shamed. Recently, in fact. I know that sickening, gut-punch feeling of humiliation when someone points out that you “like food” a lot more than you used to. (Which is not true at all; I’ve always loved food the same amount. My body just processes it differently now thanks to aging metabolism and a PCOS diagnosis). I know what it’s like to feel like you can’t “pull off” certain trends because of your body shape. I know what it’s like to sit next to a thin person and agonize over the size of my thighs compared to theirs and feel the heat of shame flush my cheeks.

I also know that, as Kimmey puts it, “having fat” doesn’t have any bearing whatsoever on the kind of mother, wife, sister, daughter, and friend I am. I’m a much better human being now and in a much better place in my life now at a size 14 than I ever was at a size 6.

We can all take a note from the inspiring, beautiful Allison Kimmey and simply just love ourselves, exactly as we are.