+9 Ways to Pick Out the Perfect Bathing Suit That You Actually Feel Confident In

 

Bathing suit shopping can bring up a lot more feelings than it should. You walk in looking for something cute for summer, and suddenly one tiny piece of fabric has you questioning your body, your confidence, and whether you even want to go to the pool anymore.

But please hear this: your body is not the problem. Bathing suits are just hard to find sometimes. They have to fit your chest, hips, butt, torso, thighs, waist, rib cage, and everything in between, so of course the process can feel frustrating.

In this episode of Embrace Your Real, I’m sharing nine practical tips to help make bathing suit shopping feel less dramatic, less defeating, and a whole lot more doable. From ignoring trends and buying the size that actually fits to choosing the right support, cover-ups, and try-on environment, this episode will help you find a suit that lets you enjoy your summer instead of obsessing over every little adjustment.

What’s Discussed:

  • Why bathing suit shopping feels hard for so many women, regardless of body shape or confidence level

  • How a cute cover-up can help you feel more styled, supported, and at ease

  • Why you should shop for the support your body actually needs instead of what looks cute on the hanger

  • How trying suits on at home can save you from the dressing room spiral

  • Why asking another woman where she got her swimsuit can be one of the best shopping hacks

  • How to tell whether a suit gives you freedom or turns into a full-time adjustment job

  • Why the most important thing you can do after putting your suit on is focus on the day, not the suit

If bathing suit shopping usually leaves you feeling defeated, this episode is your reminder that the perfect suit is not the one that makes your body look like someone else’s. It is the one that lets you move, swim, laugh, eat, chase your kids, sit in the sun, take photos, and actually be part of your summer.

If you loved this episode, I know you’ll also love Episode 621: My Best Tips for Feeling Confident in Your Body. It will help you keep building the kind of confidence that lets you show up for your life, even on the days when your body image feels loud.

If you want more from me, be sure to check out…

Website: www.juliealedbetter.com

Transcript

(0:00) Hey, hey beautiful human. Can I steal five minutes of your time? I have something super important to share with you (0:06) but I promise I'll be really quick. You're listening to my weekly bonus episode of Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter.

(0:13) I'm about to give you a quick tip for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. (0:19) Stay tuned if you're ready to Embrace Your Real. Let's get it, let's go! (0:33) Hello and welcome back to another bonus episode on the Embrace Your Real podcast.

I'm so glad that you're here with me today. (0:39) Today we're talking about something that can feel way more emotional than it should and that's bathing suit shopping. (0:46) Before we get into the tips, I need you to hear this.

It does not matter how fit you are, how confident you are, how strong you are, how much you work out, (0:53) how much you've done on your body image, bathing suits are just hard to find for everybody and every body shape. (0:59) So if you've ever tried on a swimsuit and immediately just questioned your entire existence, please know that it is not just you. (1:06) And more importantly, your body is not the problem.

Bathing suits just suck to find sometimes. (1:12) Like, they are tiny pieces of fabric that are supposed to fit your boobs, your hips, your butt, your torso, your thighs, your rib cage, your waistline, and everything in between. (1:21) Of course, that can feel hard.

So today I want to give you a few simple tips to make bathing suit shopping less dramatic, (1:28) less defeating, and hopefully a little bit more practical because you deserve to enjoy summer without letting a bathing suit decide whether or not you get to feel confident. (1:36) I'm just going to dive right into it. Number one, forget the trends.

Nothing is trending if you don't feel confident in it. (1:43) I don't care if every influencer on the planet on your feet is wearing a tiny triangle top, high cut bottom, and a string bikini or one piece with 17 cutouts. (1:54) If you put it on and instantly want to hide or adjust or tug or just take it off, that's not the suit for you.

(2:00) The perfect bathing suit is the one that you can actually live in. You should be able to sit in it, walk in it, swim in it, chase your kids in it, eat lunch in it, enjoy your day without thinking about it every two seconds. (2:09) So before you ask yourself whether or not this suit is trendy, I want you to ask yourself whether you feel comfortable being in it because that answer is the answer that you ultimately need.

(2:20) Not, okay, is this suit trendy? I don't care if it's trendy or not because at the end of the day, again, if it's something that you don't feel comfortable in, you're not going to love it. (2:29) Number two, just buy the larger size. Seriously, just do it.

No one can read the tag inside your bathing suit. (2:34) No one at the pool knows whether you're wearing a medium, a large, an extra large, or whatever size you've decided means something about you. (2:41) And bathing suit sizing is absolutely unhinged half of the time anyways.

(2:45) If the larger size lays better, feels better, moves better, and lets you breathe like a normal human, that's the size to go with. (2:52) Squeezing into a suit that is slightly too small is going to kill your confidence so much faster than just behind the suit that actually fits your body. (2:59) You do not need the smaller size.

You need the suit that lets you enjoy your day without feeling guilty or like your circulation is being personally attacked, okay? (3:08) Number three, invest in the cutest cover-up. Okay, a good cover-up can change the whole swimming experience. (3:15) I'm telling you, find the linen pants, the oversized button down, the crochet dress, the sarong, the matching set, the flowy shorts, or whatever makes you feel cute the second that you put it on.

(3:25) And honestly, if you love the cover-up, you don't even have to love the bathing suit that much. (3:30) Sometimes what helps you feel confident is having an outfit around the suit. (3:35) Something that you can walk into the pool with, grab snacks in, chase the kids in, or just sit in without feeling exposed the entire time.

(3:43) A cover-up is not a failure, right? It is styling, it's comfort, it's strategy, and I fully, fully support it. (3:50) Number four, shop for the support your body actually needs. One of the biggest mistakes (3:54) that we make with bathing suit shopping is choosing what actually looks cute on the hanger instead of what actually works on our body.

(4:03) If you have a longer torso, look for long torso options. If you have a larger chest, (4:08) try thicker straps, underwire, or tops that come in actual bra sizing. (4:13) If you want more coverage on your hips or your butt, look for that on purpose instead of hopping (4:18) into a tiny bottom and hoping that that magically feels different when you get home.

(4:24) This is not about hiding your body. This is about choosing a suit that lets you feel supported enough (4:29) to stop thinking about the suit itself. Fabric matters, strap placement matters, coverage matters, (4:34) torso length matters, how secure you feel when you move, that matters.

A suit can be cute, (4:39) but if it requires constant adjusting, that's just not the one for you. Number five, (4:44) do not try bathing suits on at the store if the dressing room makes you spiral, okay? Some dressing (4:51) rooms are truly setting you up for failure. The lighting is terrible, the mirrors are rude, (4:56) the little curtains barely close, and somehow every fluorescent bulb makes you just feel like (5:01) you have not slept since 2009.

I'm being dead serious, okay? This is not the environment (5:06) where I want you making decisions about your body. If the store try-ons make you feel awful, (5:11) order a few options online and try them on at home. Try them on with normal lighting, (5:15) your actual cover-up, your sandals, enough time to move around in the mirror that you're used to (5:20) at home.

I want you to sit down, I want you to bend over, I want you to walk around, (5:24) I want you to pretend like you're picking up a towel, pretend that you're chasing a child (5:27) who's sprinting towards the deep end. That is a much better test than standing frozen in a (5:33) dressing room while the mirror attacks your confidence. Number six, ask a stranger where (5:38) she got her suit.

If you see someone rocking a cute bathing suit and she might have a similar (5:43) body type or shape as you, ask her where she got it. I promise you, no one has ever been (5:48) annoyed by that question. She'll probably be flattered and she'll probably tell you everything.

(5:52) This is one of the most underrated chopping hacks because seeing a suit on a real person (5:57) with a real body tells you so much more than seeing it on a model in a perfectly posed photo. (6:03) Just say, oh my goodness, your swimsuit is so cute. Do you mind me asking where you got it? (6:07) That's all it takes.

Your next favorite swimsuit might come from a woman you (6:11) complemented at the pool. Totally random. Number seven, pay attention to how much adjusting the (6:17) suit requires.

A suit can look amazing for the first 30 seconds and then it becomes a full-time job. (6:22) If you have to keep pulling it up, pulling it down, fixing the straps, checking the back, (6:26) adjusting the bottoms, making sure everything is staying where it should, (6:29) that suit is going to be very hard to relax in. Confidence is not only about how something looks, (6:34) but it's also about how much freedom it gives you to be present.

You deserve a suit that lets (6:39) you forget about the suit. So when you try it on, again, I want you to move around in it and (6:44) it still feels good after sitting, walking, bending, reaching, running. You might have found a winner.

(6:51) Number eight, find a suit that you love and wear it on repeat. You do not need a new bathing suit (6:56) for every pool day, beach day, vacation day, or summer event. If you find one that you love, (7:02) wear it on repeat and honestly buy the same one in another color or buy a duplicate of the same (7:07) exact one that you want.

No one cares. No one's going to notice. And if they do, (7:11) they're probably just thinking, man, she found a suit that you actually like, (7:13) which is honestly a summer miracle.

Do not make yourself go through bathing suit shopping more (7:19) than you need to. When you find something that fits, that feels good and lets you enjoy your (7:23) life. Let that be enough.

And last but not least, number nine, once you put that suit on, (7:28) I want you to focus on the day. This is the most important part. Once the suit is on, (7:34) I want you to practice letting it go.

The suit is there so you can swim, so you can play, (7:39) so you can sit in the sun, so you can hold your baby, so you can run after your kids, (7:41) so you can jump in the pool, walk in the beach, laugh with your friends, eat the snacks, (7:45) take the pictures, and be part of the memory. One year from now, 10 years from now, 15 years (7:51) from now, you are not going to remember whether your stomach looked perfect in that swimsuit. (7:56) You are going to remember whether or not you got in the water.

You're going to remember whether (7:59) or not you allowed yourself to laugh with your kids. You are going to remember the vacation, (8:04) the pool day, the beach walk, the silly moment, and the way it felt to actually live (8:08) your life. Please do not let your insecurities keep you from amazing memories.

All right, (8:14) I'm going to do a quick recap on how to find the perfect suit. I hope that this was helpful (8:18) for you because I wish I would have had this years ago, and so that's why I'm creating it (8:22) for you now. Number one, forget the trends.

Number two, just buy the larger size. No one cares (8:27) if it's an extra small or small or medium or large or an extra large. They don't care.

They (8:33) don't see it. Number three, invest in the cutest cover up. Number four, shop for the support (8:39) that your body actually needs.

Number five, do not, for the love of all things, do not (8:44) try bathing suits on at the store if the dressing room is going to make you spiral. In fact, (8:49) I would have just encouraged you to not try them on at the store because you have to (8:54) be doing what I told you. You're going to be sitting down.

You're going to be bending (8:57) over, acting like you're picking up a towel. You're going to be running after your kids. (9:01) You can't do that in a dressing room, so just take it home, try it on, live in it for a little bit, (9:06) see if you like it.

I know it's going to cause an extra trip back to the store (9:09) or to UPS to return for Amazon or whatever, but I'm telling you it's worth it. Number six, (9:15) ask a stranger where she got her suit. If you're loving the suit, she's got a similar (9:18) body type as you.

Number seven, pay attention to how much adjusting the suit requires. (9:23) Number eight, find one suit that you love and just wear it on repeat or just buy multiples of (9:27) that. Number nine, once you put your suit on, focus on the day.

If this episode helped you, (9:32) send it to a friend who needs a little bathing suit confidence reminder before summer. The next time (9:37) that you put on a swimsuit, I want you to remember that your body is allowed to be part of your life (9:42) exactly as it is today. If you love this episode, I know you'll also love episode 240, (9:47) a pep talk on your summer body.

I will go ahead and link it in the show notes (9:51) below so that you can easily go check that out. I love you. I am cheering for you.

(9:56) Let's get the suit that makes us feel our best so we can live our best life this summer. All right. (10:01) I'll see you in the next episode.

All right, sister, that's all I got for you today, (10:14) but I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you are not already following me (10:20) on the gram, be sure to do so. Julie A. Ledbetter.

Yes, it's with an A in the middle for that (10:25) daily post-workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks, and honest accountability to keep your (10:31) mind and heart in check. The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple podcast to never miss (10:37) an episode. Thank you so much for joining me.

It means the absolute world and I'm going to (10:43) leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life (10:47) are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. (10:54) Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface.

So go out there and embrace a real (10:59) because you're worth it.

 
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