Knowing Your Body Shape

I was reflecting on my posts about diet and exercise and I recalled that when I was at school - around 14/15 years of age, I can only remember one overweight girl in our year.  Also parents of school friends were slim and rarely did you see anyone who was particularly overweight.  So why was this?  We didn't have take aways thats for sure - mum always cooked from scratch even though she worked.  We were active and had regular sports whether we liked it or not!  I really didn't care for netball and tennis - well I did like the latter but was absolutely useless.  However whatever the weather rain or shine we were forced by our teachers to take part.  So now looking back I can see it made sense.  Today so many people young and old take enjoyment from more sedentary pursuits - computer games come to mind and social media.

If you have started dieting you will see your body changing and you see a shape you remember from your youth. Okay not quite the same but nevertheless you identify with the way you really are meant to be.  When I was modelling we were told about bodies and shapes and what suits some shapes more than others.  We were also told about fashion faux pas and these remain in my head to this day.   I am often asked by people to give advice and so i thought I would share some of these things with you.

As a model I was 5ft 8ins (quite short by todays standards) and weighed 8st to 8st 4lbs.  I was painfully thin but naturally so. All the girls were very slim but still different shapes and we were acutely aware of the items of clothing which worked with our figures or not.  I can remember the dresser with a rail of clothes and she would say "this will look good on you"  or "perhaps not" and pass the item to someone else.

As we get older we all tend to put on weight but if you keep it a healthy weight for your height and frame then you will see your shape is in line with what you had in your youth.

You will probably have heard about apple, pear, hourglass, triangle, inverted triangle……..and so on.

I hate putting a label on people but the rules around these shapes are useful but ……not cast in stone - so you can break the guidelines  if you want to!!

So look out for next post and the start of some tips from the past!