A Plan

First,

My mom made my sis and I appointments at this lavish spa. It's really a women's heath clinic that has an amazing spa in it. We were spoiled rotten by an hour-long facial, a 30-minute massage, and a wonderful foot soak. The greatest part of all was that due to a scheduling error, they had to do the appointments after each other instead of at the same time, so they gave us each a free massage to fill that time. While soaking my feet, I picked up O magazine. It had two very interesting articles that struck me and that paired with Sheri's post, I have a plan.

1. One article dealt with self-esteem. One of the activities talked about measurable goals for improvement. Using that and knowing what I need, I am starting something new tomorrow. In the morning, I am putting 10 pennies in my left pocket. Every time I do "bad self-talk" or make a disparaging comment about myself, then I have to move a penny to the other pocket. This way I'll start to see how my own comments are having an effect on me.

2. The other article dealt with seeing yourself as you are, not as the fat person you were. I'm not to that point yet, because I have put back on 10 of the 26 lbs I lost, but with everything else on my list, I can start to do this activity. There are a bunch of activities to do to help with that because it takes years for your body image to catch up with the weight loss and seeing pictures isn't helpful because we see everything that is wrong. Here are some of the activities: putting lotion on your body (it's hard to deny the size of your body when you are forced to touch it), have someone do a body outline on a piece of butcher paper so you can see what your size is, have someone cut out pictures from a magazine, etc. of people that are your size, have someone show you people that are the same size as you, and close your eyes and put your hands out, showing your image of what the size of your waist is, then have someone move your hands to show the actual size of your waist.

3. Gratitude Journal (I'm stealing your idea Sheri), I need to start focusing on the wonderful gifts in my life.

4. Get my tushie out of bed and run in the mornings - no excuses.

5. Find things in my life that I can control so I don't feel like life is as out of control.


I need your help, oh wonderful friends, to keep me going and keep me honest. I don't seem to be strong enough to do this on my own. Will you help? Will you read and ask me if I haven't written about my day?

Thank you!


Gratitude Journal:

1. I'm so happy to be home and in my own bed. While spending time with my family was great, I'm so happy to be home.

2. I'm so lucky to have a wonderful husband who loves me no matter what I think I look like and how I feel about myself.

3. Our families who LOVE these girls and are teaching her to love them back.

4. My girls are so wonderful. They just love being around people and are so sweet (most of the time) :-)

5. The spa day and stumbling upon two great articles.

Goals for tomorrow:
1. Run
2. Have a good eating day.
3. Work on my packing list for this weekend.
4. Post Kara's 8 month update.
5. Relax and enjoy my day at home with the girls!