A while back I left my corporate job to start my own business. I noticed my confidence dwindling. I was working from home in sweatpants, not really caring what I was looking like and on top of that, because of my tummy issues, I was super bloated. I needed to get out of the funk I was in.
I spent time trying to get to the root of the problem so I can fix whatever was happening and get my confidence back. I spoke to my friend who’s an executive coach about my challenge. I was telling her that I was so much more confident in corporate then I was running my own business. In corporate I ran a large department, at a huge company, headquartered in New York City. I knew it would be different being on my own without a team and a corporate budget, but I needed to be able to access some of that confidence again. She told me to tell her about a time when I was super confident in corporate. My mind immediately went to this one particular meeting, I saw it so clearly. I painted the picture for her and then she asked me “what were you wearing?” I was confused. I thought she was going to ask me about the presentation but she asked me about my clothing. I trusted her and was going to join her down this road. Since I already saw this exact moment so clearly, immediately I knew what outfit I was wearing… and it was a freggen baller outfit. I was wearing a wrap dress that fit me so well (despite my bloating because guess what, I was bloated then too!) and cute peep toe heels with of course, my dorky notebook and tons of PowerPoint documents (yes we printed out PowerPoint documents back then).
She told me that she thinks there is something there and I need to explore it… I remember exactly what she said… “how you present yourself to the world, makes you feel good.”
She was on to something. I was never the person who took long time getting ready, with a full face of makeup and perfectly done hair, but I did always want to feel good in my clothes. I took what she said to heart and kept exploring it. The only problem was that I didn’t want to wear fancy clothes anymore, especially because I work in my house and it would be pretty out of character for me to wearing a dress and heels in my home.
That’s when I realized something.
It doesn’t matter about wearing fancy clothing or whether I was bloated or not…what matters is I needed to wear something that I felt good in, that made me happy, and then the confidence came.
And that is how the concept beautifully bloated came to life. The key to being beautifully bloated is to dress comfortably for your lifestyle, look good, feel confident, and most importantly, be happy!
Looking for bloat-friendly fashion tips for style inspo?
Get access to Beautifully Bloated, our bloat-friendly style guide. We worked with a stylist (who also deals with bloating) to provide inspiration and tips on what to wear when you’re bloated.