The Only "Shade" I Want to See Thrown This Summer Comes From A Water Umbrella Thingamabob

This has been a great, and greatly empowering, week for women. Life is a work in progress and so are we. By we, in this case, I mean women and I definitely include myself. Women who are otherwise smart and strong, but every now and then we slip up -- or into -- what society expects, and that's not healthy or pretty although society says it's both.

Can I hear a Like if you agree? Thanks.

This week featured two really great articles about women, especially women in the summer. The first was a nice profile of Asos on the Huffington Post site. Asos is selling their swimsuits by showing real women with real stretch marks -- or, as the stretch marks were brilliantly renamed by Allison Kimmey on Facebook, "glitter stripes." Then today (okay fine, that's just when I saw it), Healthline had a fabulous piece which, in essence said, if you have a body, then you are already swimsuit-ready. It called on us to #banthebikinibody (I added the hashtag). Bodies come in all shapes and sizes and we all have our own healthy weight and needs. Focus your goals (fitness, health, weight) around what doctors and our own research reveals, not as one more attempt to keep up with the Joneses or the woman next to you in barre class.

The more we accept ourselves, the sexier and happier we will be, whether we happen to be in a bikini, a burkini, or anything in between!