By which I mean, literally cool. It is so hot at the moment that not wearing shorts, especially to exercise is a fast track to heat exaustion.

Yes…I mean that sort of cool too 😀

Someday I’ll just walk past a Doctor Who reference…

Ok, sorry I’ll stop now and get on with the whole I wear shorts now thing!

In case you are not local, the UK has been having something of a heat wave over the last  few days, and a generally un-UK-like hot summer periodically for the last few months. Pretty much since lockdown started actually. Hey everyone stay at home…bam sunshine!

On top of this I decided to launch in to training in a big way, you will know this if you have been reading this blog for a while. You will also know that I mostly wear leggings to exercise in. Or, occasionally, I would be daring and wear capri length leggings…

Well this year I decided enough was enough, I was hot and long trousers were not helping so I bought some sorts. I have various lengths ranging from just above the knee, to so sort they are more or less pants…

Whats more I have worn all of these in public!

(yes, I know that is a lot of pictures of my legs…well…it seemed relevant!)

Ok, I hear you cry, you wear shorts, so what? Why is this so significant that it is worth its very own blog post?

Well, it is significant because between the ages of about 20 and about 43 I would not wear shorts at all. I would not wear dresses without tights or leggings, I would not show my legs in public at all. I *might* at a push wear cropped trousers but not often. It didn’t matter how hot it was, or what I was doing, I would not wear shorts.

Then at some point last year (possibly the year before) I bought some shorts, they were long and baggy and looked like 1990s boy shorts, but they were shorts, and suddenly I lived in them.Then this year I decided it was just too hot and I bought workout shorts. And I wore them, at home, out for walks and at the gym, and you know what, the world did not end and noone died of shock at all.

For some reason, there is a belief in the world, among the judgemental and the insecure that only the skinny should wear shorts. That the only legs that deserve to be cool and uncovered in the summer are those that society deem acceptable. The meaner people make comments about people on the street, and celebrities in magazines. They wax lyrical about that person about not having the right body type for shorts, about “not wanting to see that” about it not being decent. But you know what…

They are wrong.

Anyone can wear shorts, there is no rule about only certain sizes of people being allowed to wear them. The people that say otherwise are just plain wrong. There is nobody type that looks bad in shorts, everyone just looks different and should wear what they are comfortable in.

If someone else doesn’t want to see me in shorts, they should look somewhere else!

So this year I wear shorts. It took me a lot of self-pep talking and reassurances to actually get out of the door in them. I know it shouldn’t, but society being the way it is, and my brain being the way it is, it took me a little while to realise that it was acceptable.

But you know what, its not only acceptable, its brilliant!

My legs no longer feel like they are melting!!

Society can suck it! I am going to change the world, one pair of shorts at a time!