Something new

I'm going to try something new here.  I haven't posted for a while because I haven't had anything 'good' to report.  So every time I'd think "I should post something on the blog" I would draw a big blank because I hadn't really accomplished anything or met any of my goals.  I'd think about that and just get down on myself.

So that's where the change comes in.  I know in my case, I spend way too much time focusing on what I haven't done, what I think I can't do, what I don't feel like doing, and less on what I am able to do, what I'm capable of, and what I have done.

My new goal is to focus the good - learn how to appreciate what I have and how to improve upon that.  Too often I think "I hate my legs." "I hate my hips." etc.  I am going to learn how to love me, my body (which sounds ridiculous but is true) and do my best to improve what I love.  I do this in other areas of my life, why should it be so hard to relate it to my body?

I don't know how this will go, or how hard or easy it will be to learn to stop the negative thoughts and switch from wanting to change something out of dislike, to wanting to improve something to make it better - even though it's fine the way it is. I'm sure it will be a struggle.  But I'm going to give it a shot anyway.

Couldn't hurt, right?

No seriously, Motivation...

You'd think I'd have given myself a kick in the pants after the last motivation post.  You'd think.

I didn't.

Anyway, I just placed an order for a BodyMedia FIT LINK armband - it's supposed to track your calories burned (all day and night) and monitors sleep patterns, and has a software it links up with for tracking calories ingested. I am so excited to get this thing.

To sucker my way into getting it, I compared it to our car (which is a hybrid).  The car shows  your it's performance while you're driving, so you can see if you hit the accelerator too hard or are riding the gas pedal too much, and if you want the car to perform better and have optimal gas mileage, you have to pay attention to what the car is telling you and go easy on it.  Same thing with my body and this BodyMedia guy (or what I hope).  I envision that it will show me how I'm doing all day long and I can track my history and see what works vs what doesn't work.  I've read a ton of reviews and 9 out of 10 say that the user has had a lot of success.

I'm so excited to get it and I'll report back when I do and have had it for a while :)

"No offense, but..."

I cannot even begin to tell you how many times in my life I've felt like I'm not enough 'something'.  Not good enough, not spiritual enough, not skinny enough.  We all know that no one is perfect, but what happens when we extend an expectation of perfection onto others?  When we don't mean to offend but we say something offensive?  So many times we've all bit our tongues to a snarky remark or rude judgment and just let it float on.  How else are we supposed to handle stuff like that?

I truly have no answer to this, but I so wish I did.  There are often times that people close to us will say something incredibly offensive but not 'mean it that way.'  We've all passed judgment on others, including myself, and I rarely stop to think "I wonder if what I'm commenting on/thinking about might be a daily struggle for that person..." I understand honesty and truthfulness, but I think we all need to be more aware of others feelings and think before we speak to ensure we aren't offensive.  Even the smallest passing judgment can be seriously hurtful, especially when you don't stop to think about what battles people are fighting on their own.

We all have our own ideas of how things should be handled: how the kids should be raised; how the house should be kept; what fitness and eating well looks like, and rarely do two individuals agree 100% on these things, yet we almost all feel like our way is the right way and then feel the need to push that way on the other person.  I believe we should all be free to have our own opinions, but I also feel like there are situations in which our opinions are best kept to ourselves. Obviously, I could go on and on about this topic, it's such a predominant issue, but I won't.  I am going to make an honest attempt to make a serious change to be less judgmental and think more before I speak, and I hope others will do the same!

Patience

All images from Pinterest

Making a Change

We all have things we want to change about ourselves.  Be healthier, skinnier, more muscular, have more patience, be less judgmental, less jealous, etc.  I think it's completely normal to want to make changes to yourself.  The hardest thing about wanting to make a change is actually doing it.  So many times we hear ourselves or someone else say "I'm trying to..." - I'm trying to eat healthy, I'm trying to get fit, I'm trying to have more patience. 

I think we say "I'm trying to..." because we expect that we'll fail.  We say we are "trying to eat healthy" because we know that at some point we're probably going to make a bad decision regarding what we put into our bodies.  Or we are "trying to be patient" because we know that a few more words or actions could put us over the edge and we'll lose our patience. 

So many times I've told myself, and others, that I'm trying to lose weight. I'm trying to be healthier. I'm trying to be happier. I'm trying to be more understanding. I'm trying to be less judgmental.  And so many other things I'm trying to do, but maybe only 'trying' puts me at a disadvantage because it's like I know subconsciously that at some point, I'll fail.  

I'm tired of failing and I'm tired of feeling bad for myself for not giving something my all because I'm scared I'll fail at it.  I think it's going to be really hard, but I want to stop "trying" to change and ACTUALLY change.  If you have something you want to change, stop "trying" and ACTUALLY change it.  Maybe one way is to stop using the term 'trying'.  Instead of trying to do something, say what we are or are not doing.  I am healthier. I am happier. I am not judging. I think we can make ourselves believe what we are or are not instead of making it easy on ourselves to fail by just trying. It'll take motivation, being self-assured, maybe second guessing yourself a little bit and making decisions that maybe you aren't used to making, being HARD on yourself, but I can bet you one thing, it'll be worth it in the end. 

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