No Pressure

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do you ever have those days when you KNOW all your body needs is a salad but NOTHING in you really wants one??? that just happened to me. and guess what i'm eating?! a SALAD! ha. how did that happen? it's this thing called reverse psychology that went a little like this:

need lunch... open fridge (nope, nope, nope, nope- nothing looks good)
go to cabinet... pull out chips- YUM! hmmm, cheese sounds good with these and i bet i could eat a salad too.
5mins later i've got a HUGE salad in my hands w/cheese on top and my chips on the side! self-trickery... that's what i call it!

(ps- the chips are "clean". LOVE Trader Joe's!!!)

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haha. really though... i was just talking to my friend about this concept the other day. about how allowing yourself to "cheat" often takes away the desire to really actually do it. the conversation we had was more about getting our weekly workouts in and i expressed how i was feeling REALLY exhausted and was gonna give myself a pass again- for the third day in a row. after we got off the phone i was thinking to myself, "hey, you know, i really kinda want to workout now! even if it's just 10minutes." the result? i ended up working out for 18minutes!! same thing as the salad- by not pressuring myself, making myself feel obligated, i still made the RIGHT CHOICE and was HAPPY about it. if i pressure myself into doing the right thing then i usually end up hating every minute of it. self-love and tenderness is SUCH a better way to go!!!

now, granted, this concept can be taken to an extreme, as in just being lazy, but that is where self-awareness and being willing to be honest with yourself comes in. it takes a little practice in being able to discern if you are just making excuses or if you really do need to insert a little self-acceptance WITHOUT that salad or workout. BUT it's SOOO important  to be able to disconnect your identity or self-esteem by what you DO. being proud of your accomplishments is one thing, but finding your whole being in them is another!

you must know that i have not gotten to this place over night. just take a look at the first year or two of posts on this blog and you can follow the journey i have taken on my quest for balance. it's POWERFUL! i look back at those posts and see really how far i've come. i was in a VERY unhealthy state at that point in my life but what progress has taken place over the past couple years! it is time-consuming and tough but SO worth it! i'm VERY thankful that i have taken the opportunity to invest time and energy into this area of health for myself. we as women so often spend our days always caring for those around us- making their world go round and stay in one piece- that we forget to invest in caring for ourselves and our world on top of all of it.

food for thought. i hope that you will decide to do this for yourself as well. you are worth it. just the way you are, right now. if a good starting point for you is reading some of my earlier posts to see how i've come to this point then i'd be SO happy that my story and struggles and victories could help make a difference in someone else's life. there's enough hate in the world already and we should NOT be hating ourselves, the way we look, the goals we haven't met, etc. (and, yes, it is hard to admit that self-hate is really the issue but sometimes- like in my life- that is the reality and it needs to be admitted before it can be overcome.) i am so passionate about this because i struggled for SOO long and i KNOW the insanity that can take place in the mind, soul, and being because of all the pressures to be "beautiful", "perfect", "ideal" that are put on us as women. it doesn't need to be that way and it CAN change! i am proof!!

you are ALREADY enough!!!