Hugging the Curve is a weekly column by ACE Certified personal trainer Kelly Turner dedicated to help you gain positive body image and a healthy outlook on diet and exercise in a world that says you will never be good enough.  Have you hugged your curves today?

It’s swimsuit season which means everywhere you look, you are bombarded with tips and tricks on how to lose weight quickly or ways to hide your body flaws to look great in your bathing suit.

Who says you need to lose weight to look good in a bathing suit?  Even those articles designed to help you pick a suit to look good with the body you have focus on camouflaging your ‘trouble zones.’  Gee, thanks.  As if we don’t spend enough time staring at the things we don’t like about ourselves in the mirror.

This is why everyone freaks out the second the snow melts.  In a perfect world, you would be keeping up on your exercise and eating right year ’round so there’s nothing to sweat about when it comes time to hit the beach.  In reality, everyone has a few ‘shoulda, woulda coulda’s’ about their bodies after hiding them under sweaters all winter.  Instead of picking out the negatives and focusing on the flaws, real bikini confidence comes from getting your mind right, and rocking the body you have, with no apologies.

Don’t hide.  Don’t camouflage.  Don’t hate.

Get mad.  Get mad at magazines for assuming you are not already swimsuit ready.  If you are hot, want a tan, or near water, you are swimsuit ready.  Get mad at websites and tv shows for cheerily telling you how to hide parts of your body you shouldn’t be happy with, like they are doing you a favor.

Accentuate the positive, and you are all positive. Pick a bathing suit that shows off your hips, your awesone rack, or your feminine shape. Pick a swimsuit simply because you like the style of it, not because it has magical dimple erasing capabilities.

Don’t feel shame.  Don’t feel embarrassed.  If you walk down the beach, don’t be worried that people are looking at you and judging your body.  No one notices your cellulite or your stretch marks.  Why?  Because they are all too busy worrying about their own.  The only sure fire way to get people to notice you is blow them away with your confidence.  Buy a swim suit you like, that you are comfortable in, and strut your stuff- not after 2 weeks of eating twigs, not after sweating off 4 months worth of cosmos and not after figuring out the perfect way to sit that won’t flatten out your thighs.

Enjoy your summer.  This is your year.  Not the year you finally dropped the weight or perfectly hid your belly pooch, but the year that you didn’t drive yourself insane about your appearance. Make this your year by loving yourself exactly the way that you are, and showing it off.