Hello Reader,

Happiest of Fridays, mes cherubs! I hope you have a spectacular weekend lined up. Let's talk about sweat, baby, let's talk about you and me.

Unless you're not sweaty, we can discuss my sweat instead if you'd like...

It is hotter than hell at the moment. As a species, you can't argue that we're really quite good at warming planets up; you can't take away our trophy for that little title.

The UK, Canada, the US, and many other places are experiencing persistent and somewhat oppressive heat. Lovely.

And you're feeling like a hot, sweaty mess. SAME BABE.

And I've been speaking to clients loads about this the last couple of weeks, there seems to be an internal story going around that there is a version of you out there who is attractive, calm, cool, collected, and not a sweaty mess in the heat. Usually, this version of you is smaller, having finally lost those 'pesky 10lbs.'

And while I get it, the messaging for decades, centuries, is that fat = bad, lazy, sweaty, unattractive, and thin = good, put together, effortless, and attractive.

The thing about our bodily processes is that they don't really care about your desire to have a dewy, sexy, summer 'glow', and whilst faintly smelling of Chanel Mademoiselle all the time. You have a chic, vintage foldable fan in your bag, but you never have actually USE it, that's for peasants....

This is not to say that you're feelings of wanting to rid yourself of the self-described label of sweaty mess in summer are wrong or bad.

However, there is absolutely no guarantee that changing your body would stop the sweat.

Let me tell you a story...

Back in the day, one of my five jobs (that might be understating it) at university was working at the gym. The UConn Recreation Centre: Where the student body develops. I worked there for three years and I saw some things.

Most people would swipe their little student card, go all the way down the hallway to 'The Cage' (as we called it in the biz) to check out a towel, or a basketball, or some badminton equipment if that was their bag.

Except for one guy. Who probably could have taken a harassment complaint out against me...

I think it was my last year working at the gym, he started showing up. And like any gym, we had regulars, so I distinctly remember a time when he wasn't there, a simpler time.

He was, as far as strangers go, a nice guy. But, and it is a big BUT, he was the sweatiest person alive. He should be studied. And you might ask why I cared so much about someone sweating in a gym I worked in, duh Rach, seems part and parcel. GROW UP.

YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND. He sweated so much that we would have to put down anywhere from 2-3 towels (FULL-SIZE TOWELS) underneath the machine he was using. His shirt and shorts would be SATURATED, in the official Chemistry 101 definition - the material could not hold any more sweat.

As the person who was responsible for cleaning the equipment, as soon as I saw him, I would go to the cage, take a towel, walk up to him, and politely say, "Hi, can I have your student ID to check out this towel for you?"

I basically followed this man around, forcing him to use absorbent material because the buckets and buckets of sweat we were always clearing up after him made me feel a bit sick.

My boss told me off one day, "Rach, you know that he doesn't HAVE to check out a towel, right? We can't make him."

Well, Sylvia, that's just not true, is it, because I did, every single time he came in when I was on shift. 💁🏼‍♀️

Luckily, he never complained about me as his sweat stalker...I wonder what he's up to now...

Anyway.

To quell your curiosity about his body composition. He was very lean, pretty sure he was an endurance athlete who had a VERY, VERY, VERY efficient thermoregulation system (sweating).

So you're not disgusting, or fat, or lazy, and changing your body might not make you sweat less, maybe it would make you sweat more?!

You're allowed to not enjoy the sensation of sweating, but you may consider giving yourself a break, that it's not JUST YOU specifically struggling with sweating when it's hot out.

Stay as cool as you can, bbies, and I hope you're able to enjoy the sunshine

xx

Struggling to cope with how awful you feel about your body in summer? Don't want your body image or relationship with food to steal another summer of fun from you? I'd be happy to help inside coaching.

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Love you, mean it.

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xx Rach ​ ​​​​

Portland House Westfield Road, Leighton Buzzard, England LU7 9GU
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