To suit up? To bikini? or to care..... ?

VS.

And with the arrival of Summer, comes the seasonal debate .... to bikini? to tankini? to burkini?to mankini*? .... (the list continues) *although unless you're being paid a six-figure salary/ are purposefully making a show of yourself, please refrain from the last option!

The above swimwear conundrum comes hand-in-hand with the continual quest for unachievable body perfection, a problem that escalates every year.

In every local newsagent, the shelves heave with glossy magazines proclaiming 'thinner thighs in two weeks' , 'get bikini beautiful now', 'the Summer diet everyone's talking about', 'lose 2 stone in 2 weeks' .... you get the low-fat, exercise-laden picture. The big picture however should not involve crash dieting in order to look "good" (read, alarmingly thin, as dictated by many of the aforementioned glossies), being confident and healthy should be your main goal.

As an avid fan of the trashy weeklies (it's only to keep up to date with current events, I swear!), I am forever reading about the latest crash diet, how carbohydrates are evil, which fake tan can give you sculpted arms and which celebrity has (apparently) put on a few pounds. I never fail to be somewhat disgusted by the ideal shape that these publications allude to. Celebrities in particular are given quite a hard time. They are either pictured with red circles around their thighs, cellulite- how shocking!, or else around their arms, stick thin- definite eating disorder! Nothing is good enough. Strangely enough the BMI, exercise plan or daily diet of these women are never brought up, merely the clothes size they wear and their approximate weight. The focus is on numbers rather than health.

As a 5'6", size 10, who weighs just under ten stone, I am happy to say that I have a healthy BMI, I try to eat enough fruit and vegetables, regard carbohydrates as a vital source of energy and have never had a panic attack after over-indulging on biscuits. To the many women who focus on their bingo wings and orange-peel on the beach, I would like to remind them why they came: F-U-N.

So when it comes to beach time I will wear whatever I want: Swimsuit, wetsuit, bikini, tankini, I say bring it on.... once I can build sandcastles, attempt to catch a wave, end up paddling and get a 99 on the way home.