With the seemingly never ending stream of storms, gales and gusts that have been battering the country this Winter, it’s no surprise that most of us are likely looking forward to the dawn of Spring and Summer time with excitement. Browsing holiday destinations online and dreaming of soaking up some sun in an exotic holiday resort (or in your back garden, if we ‘re lucky enough to get a repeat of last year’s heatwave) is a perfectly acceptable coping strategy to get you through the miserable drizzle of January and February in this part of the world.

Some shops are even starting to stock their holiday wear, with beach towels and flip flops peeping out from behind sale racks packed with winter coats and woolly jumpers.

Which, of course, signals the beginning of 'bikini body' season. Since the new year started gyms and slimming groups everywhere have been flogging their services, reminding the general public that summer bodies are made in winter and that it’s time to burn off all those holiday season treats.

Talk of calorie counting and meal plans and sticking to the rules of whatever fad diet or weight loss regime that’s currently on the go fills magazines, and is the go-to topic in office tea rooms across the nation. And while of course, there is an important health dimension to minding your weight and getting some activity in a society that is now very sedentary, it can sometimes feel like the conversation around food and fat and the feelings that come with them never ends.

It begs the question of how healthy it is for so many of us to be constantly hyperaware of every calorie or carb we intake. How has it become normal to believe that eating comes followed by gruelling routine of punishment and reward, restriction and guilt, when in reality it’s nothing more than a simple, natural bodily function that we need to stay alive?

And it’s not a new concept in the slightest to point out that these ideas and images around what we should eat and how we should look are enforced by the media, and so like everything else, are now even more invasive thanks to the advent of social media.

From fitness gurus on Instagram to the clothes advertisements, the goalposts that are set for how human bodies should look are by and large, extremely narrow – toned, tanned, lean, tall, trim. An expectation that most may aspire to, but that the vast majority do not and may never manage to acquire. But the advertising industry monopolises on this fact because, in the words of bestselling author Matt Haig, people who are insecure make good consumers. Advertising promises us that if we buy this product, or sign up to this diet plan or drink this detox tea we’ll get a flat stomach in a week and our insecurities and perceived flaws will disappear just as quickly as our belly rolls did!

It’s in the interests of sales and profit margins to make us feel like we’re not good enough.

But, slowly but surely, many people are saying enough is enough to this cycle of low self esteem and poor body image, and they’re using the same social media platforms that can spread and reinforce the opposite unrealistic ideal. The Body Positivity movement has been gaining some traction for the last few years, and it has recently been catapulted freshly into conversation with actress and presenter Jameela Jamil at the helm.

Jamil herself suffered from anorexia nervosa as a teenager, and is now using her celebrity influence to campaign against the harmful promotions of unrealistic body ideals, such as petitioning to ban celebrity endorsements of 'flat tummy teas', which are in most cases drinks containing laxatives which claim to help you get a flat stomach, fast.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that pop stars, actresses or reality TV stars promoting products like these, along with others such as appetite suppressing lollipops, could have a damaging effect on the minds of young, impressionable girls. Jamil has also pointed out that many of the personalities flogging these products, such as Kim Kardashian, have more than likely obtained their flat tummy look and unattainable figure by going under the knife – not through diets or drinks, like they may claim.

Jamil and others behind the Body Positivity movement argue that this culture of obsession with a single, slim ideal of what the perfect body looks like should be discarded, and that instead we shouldn’t place so much of our own value and worth in what we weigh or how our bodies look. Is it worth living a life of constantly berating and hating yourself because you don’t look like an airbrushed image online which isn’t even anything close to average? Body Positivity instead argues that all people should be able to feel comfortable and happy no matter what their size or shape. Not necessarily that we should completely discard all ideas around looking after our health, but more so that there should be no shame or worth embedded in how your body looks.

Indeed Jameela’s online campaign, ‘I Weigh’, centres around this idea, proposing that instead of attaching a worth to a number on the scale, we should instead focus on the weight of our achievements, of our good traits, of our relationships and our strengths. It pushes forward the message that our weight or shape or size should not define us – it is simply one, small outward aspect of yourself, and at the end of the day, amounts to nothing more than flesh on our bones.

So if you’re on a New Year’s health kick or wishing you could weigh less for the summer, that’s fine and great, but do keep in mind that despite the popular saying, you are not what you eat, and there’s more to you than the way you look. After all, getting a beach body is simple. Step one, have a body. Step two, visit a beach!