Today's post is one I imagined up a few weeks ago. Perfectly fitting for the month of love/black history month. How am I going to combine romance, African Americans, and weight-loss all under the same header?
With Lucille Clifton's poem "Homage to My Hips":
these hips are big hips
they need space to
move around in.
they don't fit into little
petty places. these hips
are free hips.
they don't like to be held back.
these hips have never been enslaved,
they go where they want to go
they do what they want to do.
these hips are mighty hips.
these hips are magic hips.
i have known them
to put a spell on a man and
spin him like a top!
I love this poem. I love how self confident she is and how sexy she feels.
I have a lot of former fat girl body issues. But I think most people have some insecurities about their self image. I could not accept myself being significantly overweight, but there are things I have to learn to accept. I'm big boned. Ill never be a size 2. And yup, ill have stretch marks the rest of my life. Some people have genetically wide hips and some look anorexic even when if they eat 3000 calories a day.
The point is, whatever your goals are for yourself, you will be much more successful if you have a high degree of tolerance for your imperfections. The more you allow yourself to be discouraged, the more "fat days" you will have. No one wants to exercise on a fat day. You're setting yourself up for failure and a trip to McDonalds.
Also, guys hate when girls rag on their bodies. It is a huge turn off. Don't do that. Positive women are way more beautiful regardless of what they look like.
When I'm doing my bicycle crunches and it sucks and I'm starting to loose form, I like to tell myself, "Emily, your hips are mighty hips! You could spin a man like a top with these hips! You got this girl!"
See how that is way better than "Emily you sad sack. You still don't have the core strength to finish this set?!?!". Yuck. So, tip of the day: change the way you talk to yourself.
And if Clifton just wasn't doin it for ya, try listening to LMFAO "Sexy and I Know It". Same concept.
Friday, February 22, 2013
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Giving up resolutions for Lent?
Man, February is hard. It's the easiest month to kiss your goals and resolutions good bye. First you're faced with the rule of six weeks. Most people can stick with a new diet or exercise regimen for 6 weeks before they hit a snag.
Guess what is 6 weeks from January 1st? Valentines day. F bomb. How can you stay on track when your honey lamb is coming home with candies every day? Or worse, you have no honey lamb; all you have are so many feelings to feed.
Then you've got Fat Tuesday. Are you kidding me?!?! The last thing we need is another reason to binge drink.
Finally, it's black history month. Mmm. I like to celebrate with hot wings and waffles.
The only redeeming thing about this freezing god forsaken disaster of a month is Lent. You get to have ashes painted on your forehead and make a promise to God you'll give up one of your vices until Easter. What could be more motivating than the guilt of breaking lent and the possibility of fire and brimstone?
Of course Methodists get a "cheat day" on Sunday. And maybe you're an atheist without proper fear of a Heavenly judgement (bless your apostate heart). So, Lent won't help everyone pull out of their February funk.
Let me share what happened to me in February of 2009. This was my Junior year of college and I was at peak weight. I was eating an entire bag of chalky sweet heart "hug me" candies every day. Lord, I love those sugary little antacid treats. It was seriously about 2,000 calories a bag. I was single and partying a lot and eating the hell out of st. Valentine's cheapest and least favored candies. On Valentine's day I was miserable. I was single and hung over and belly sick on sweets. My roommates all had some form of significant other, and here I was, alone at the house and awfully pathetic. I just made the decision on a whim that I would go to the campus gym. I would stop being pathetic for one hour. Although I was obese, and hadn't seriously exercised in over a year, I got on the elliptical and stayed on it for an hour.
That was it. That Valentine's day was the catalyst. By October I had lost my first 60 pounds.
Well, the moral is February sucks. You'll probably have set backs, plateaus, candy, and alcohol. You'll likely be freezing as second winter strikes and depressed by your lackluster love life. You'll break resolutions (like blogging 3 x a week).
But this February, challenge yourself to commit. Say I will start over. I will keep going. I will not go to the back of the bus! Yeah! That's a Rosa Parks weight loss metaphor. Puzzle it out.
Guess what is 6 weeks from January 1st? Valentines day. F bomb. How can you stay on track when your honey lamb is coming home with candies every day? Or worse, you have no honey lamb; all you have are so many feelings to feed.
Then you've got Fat Tuesday. Are you kidding me?!?! The last thing we need is another reason to binge drink.
Finally, it's black history month. Mmm. I like to celebrate with hot wings and waffles.
The only redeeming thing about this freezing god forsaken disaster of a month is Lent. You get to have ashes painted on your forehead and make a promise to God you'll give up one of your vices until Easter. What could be more motivating than the guilt of breaking lent and the possibility of fire and brimstone?
Of course Methodists get a "cheat day" on Sunday. And maybe you're an atheist without proper fear of a Heavenly judgement (bless your apostate heart). So, Lent won't help everyone pull out of their February funk.
Let me share what happened to me in February of 2009. This was my Junior year of college and I was at peak weight. I was eating an entire bag of chalky sweet heart "hug me" candies every day. Lord, I love those sugary little antacid treats. It was seriously about 2,000 calories a bag. I was single and partying a lot and eating the hell out of st. Valentine's cheapest and least favored candies. On Valentine's day I was miserable. I was single and hung over and belly sick on sweets. My roommates all had some form of significant other, and here I was, alone at the house and awfully pathetic. I just made the decision on a whim that I would go to the campus gym. I would stop being pathetic for one hour. Although I was obese, and hadn't seriously exercised in over a year, I got on the elliptical and stayed on it for an hour.
That was it. That Valentine's day was the catalyst. By October I had lost my first 60 pounds.
Well, the moral is February sucks. You'll probably have set backs, plateaus, candy, and alcohol. You'll likely be freezing as second winter strikes and depressed by your lackluster love life. You'll break resolutions (like blogging 3 x a week).
But this February, challenge yourself to commit. Say I will start over. I will keep going. I will not go to the back of the bus! Yeah! That's a Rosa Parks weight loss metaphor. Puzzle it out.
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