Alicia Mccarvell reflects on bathing suit that 'changed my life'
The Canadian body-positivity advocate shared new photos from a recent trip to Mexico.
Alicia Mccarvell is reflecting on the bathing suit that changed her life.
The Halifax-based body-positivity advocate took to Instagram with a carousel of photos from a recent trip to Mexico with her husband Scott.
It began with a collage including a throwback photo to five years ago, when Mccarvell found herself "on a beach in a bathing suit for the first time in 12 years," she penned in the caption.
That collage also included text reading "five years ago this bathing suit changed my life," over the 2018 photo.
In the following six photos, from the couple's recent trip, Mccarvell is wearing a black one-piece suit with a leopard-print hot pink sarong around her waist. To match her cover-up, Scott was wearing hot pink trunks, paired with a light cowboy hat and Ray-Ban sunglasses.
Mccarvell wrote a touching note on confidence and body image in the caption, recalling the moment she decided to hit the beach five years ago.
"Choosing to wear the suit that day, uncomfortable, unsure, and scared forced me to face the reality — I was allowing how I felt about my body, impact the way I was living my life," she wrote.
"That day on the beach my husband and I played like we were kids," the 33-year-old influencer wrote.
In that 2018 trip to Florida, Mccarvell confessed, she only took two photos of herself in that bathing suit. But this time around, she wanted to "give it, myself and my husband the photos is deserved."
This bathing suit allowed her to live life differently, she continued, adding an encouraging note to others struggling with body image and self-love.
"You deserve the joy, the people you love deserve you present, and your body deserves your respect."
Her followers rushed to the comments to applaud Mccarvell's progress.
"I grieve everyday for the lost happy beach days I missed out on playing with my kids," one person wrote. "I’m trying so hard now to make better choices for myself and my family."
Another added, "I cannot even begin to tell you how beautiful this is! It is such a small concept but it has a large impact."
One person wrote: "I always love your content, but this specifically changed my outlook and in some ways how I live my life."
Some admired the loving energy between her and Scott in the photos.
"I will never get over the way he looks at you," one fan wrote.
"Even by just looking at this photo you can literally feel how in love he is with you," another chimed in.
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