Today I promise myself that ......

Morning, Gang! As I've posted, I have a hard time during Hormone Week and it's really hit me hard this month probably because I've scheduled more plastic surgery. Shawn's post yesterday hit me hard because it was so sad to read how hard she was on herself but I know many of us are guilty of the same thing. I know I am and always have been. So, today I promise myself not to beat myself up. I'm going to lunch with a friend so I won't be able to go all liquids and protein today but I'm doing so until 1:30 and I promise myself to make a good choice for lunch and not to overeat. I am promising myself to take good care of my body, skin and spirit. Shawn, you and I along with the rest of us need to realize we are special and we deserve special care! We are each our own life coaches and a life coach looks for the positives, encourages clients to set goals, seek solutions and LIVE! I promise myself that I won't limit myself today. I'm going to climb, like Phyllis! CeCe

I second that! We should put more focus on being good to ourselves. We can choose to see our commitment to health as deprivation, or we can choose to see it as doing what is best for our body, mind and spirit. I choose to treat myself as I treat others; with respect, dignity and LOVE. We wouldn't call someone we love a failure because they lost their way. We would tell them that all is not lost. We would tell them to start new today, this moment. Every moment is a new opportunity. My life is a series of choices. From this moment on, I choose to love and cherish ME! Hugs, Valorie Ps.. Someone may have to remind me of this choice in the near future. My heart is willing, but my head is weak!

Valorie, I have to quote you here because what you said is worth repeating. You wrote: "We can choose to see our commitment to health as deprivation or we can choose to see it as doing what is best for our body, mind and spirit." That is AWESOME because I think we do often see it as deprivation! We know we feel better when we eat better. We know we like the number on the scale more when we are eating better. We know we feel better about ourselves when we eat better and we feel guilty when we make bad choices so why is it so hard not to feel deprived?! Very few people on this earth can eat what they want anytime they want it and even if it doesn't show on the outside with weight gain, it shows up on the inside! And, you are so right when you say you would never treat others the way you treat yourself! We would never DREAM of doing so! Why is it so easy to treat ourselves so badly?! I've said it for years in my journal, to old friends and new, this whole journey is about choices and being conscious of and responsible for those choices and all of that has to be tempered with self love and fighting the belief that we have to be perfect. Good post, Valorie! CeCe

Great post. CeCe as you can tell from my reply to Shawn it hit me hard too. I am generally a nice person I would never treat someone else the way I sometimes treat me. This is a slow change though. Learning to love, trust, repect and cherish yourself for me is one of the hardest lessons ever, but so worth the learning. I like your idea about being your own life coach. You know before my surgery when I am laying out hundreds of dollars to WW - I thought this is ridiculous - I paying them to tell me eat right, exercise and drink lots of water. I hate to tell you but this is no great secret in the art of healthy living. Today I promise myself that I will be my own cheerleader. My own life coach. If I make a mistake I do not get the luxury of beating myself up only the reality of figuring out a better way to deal with things next time. I have a cold right now - I did go to the doctor and am negative for flu and strep so he said it is "The Crud" - I asked if that was his professional diagnosis But when I don't feel good I have this old record that plays that says --- Eating something will make me feel better. Or --- you feel so bad you deserve ... I am fighting this comforting myself with food bad right now! I wanted to go out for lunch - even though I brought a great salad with me for lunch. I pretty much forced myself to eat the salad and it tasted yummy - just something in my head before I ate thought resturant food would taste good (and have lots of extra fat that I don't need). Sorry I got to rambling. I am with you CeCe - Today I will be kind to me! Trudy

Trudy, You are right that learning to love, respect and cherish yourself is one of the hardest lessons. It's one I've journaled about, talked about in therapy, bought and read so many books focusing on that subject and still it's a lesson that I cannot seem to master totally. Oh, I'm so much better than I ever was. I guess part of that comes with age but it's still not natural for me. I laughed about your comment you were paying WW to tell you what to do! I went to WW, Nutrisystem and just about everything! What I always discovered was that I knew more than they did about nutrition - I just wasn't doing what I knew to do and it showed more on me than many people!!! It's still amazing to me that personal trainers, fitness instructors, nutritionists and exercise physiologists sometimes know so little about nutrition. And, doctors? What a laugh! So, yeah, we know what to do for sure! I just wish I knew what makes it so hard to keep on the right track when we know what our triggers are, we know what works and doesn't work and know our patterns!!! They say insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting different results! I think I still expect differert results!!!! Trudy, I also eat when I'm sick or not feeling well. Some people don't eat when sick but I've always viewed it as a free for all!!! I've examined this for years and I think I "enjoyed" being sick because my mother took the time to pay attenton to me then. She's a caretaker and she felt she was doing something good if she coddled us when we were sick. One way of doing that was with food. So, I associate caring for myself with food when I'm not feeling well. Like you, I can have delicious, healthy food right there but will choose something else!! Oh, how complicated it is to be our own cheerleaders when we carry all this baggage!! Oh, I just had a vision of cheerleaders in front of a crowded stadium attempting to cheer while holding huge suitcases!!! That's us! We can't soar off the ground and express our joy when we are carrying all that baggage! Now, think about them dropping those suitcases and kicking them away so they can CHEER and be free! I like that vision! No matter what our baggage is filled with, we can leave it behind. Kick it to the curb! Don't let it weigh us down. We've lost so much physical weight, let's lose the inner baggage that continues to haunt us and weigh us down. CeCe

CeCe, Great post! I am guilty of this too. Me and another OH friend have talked about this. We CANNOT talk down and beat ourselves up ... we need to SPOT the good things we do and give a few ATTA GIRLS - most times we find and focus on what we didn't do right and beat ourselves up over it - FOR A LONG TIME. Does it help? NO! It probably has the REVERSE effect We should treat our bodys with respecet and eat right and exercise ...because *we DESERVE* it We are *WORTH IT* HAVE A POSITIVE DAY, Britt

Why can't we be good to ourselves. My husband got me a day at the Spa for Christmas and I feel guilty about using it because I feel I don't deserve it what's the deal with that. Obviously he thought I did because we don't exchange gifts so it was a very special gesture on his part, he had to ask my sister-in-law and niece where there was a spa. So I'm really working on not being so hard on myself and I'm reading the Beck diet again and working through the days in there. We are special look at what we have accomplished in the last year. I can be happy and proud of everyone else but myself why is that. Britt for looking fabulous in her bikini, Phyllis for taking a chance and climbing a wall. Wanda and CeCe for undergoing and surviving plastic surgery(especially Wanda for the black furry tongue syndrome). I have gotten a whole new group of friends online and in person. I have grown so much as a person in the last year and I am special Deb

CeCe, I am so sorry that my post hit you are hard as it did... I didn't mean for it to negatively affect anyone... I am so happy for you though that you want to go climb.... I could never do that because of my knees... but I secretly really really want to do that, and I want to jump out of a plane too... Who knows... maybe someday, but right now my knees could never handle it.... DON'T ever limit yourself CeCe... you are way to special to ever do that... you deserve the world and you can have it if you just GO FOR IT!!!! I can't wait to read what you have accomplished next.... You definitely keep me motivated and keep me coming back to the boards to see what is going on with you.... Can't wait to hear about your climbing adventure.... HUGS, Shawn M.