Most women can say they have had times where they didn't like what they saw in the mirror. I am also going to tell you, MEN FEEL THE SAME WAY! Now they don't share well in general so you don't know. But if they did, as they do to me (clients), you would realize they step on the scale a lot, analyze their waist line and pants size and also want to look good naked.
I am going to only speak from a woman's perspective, since of course that is what I am. This will also be personal. I got into the fitness/nutrition world because I had been an athlete in school, went to college, was not, and chose to figure out the right way to "train" my body instead of doing quick fix, detrimental type things. Now, did I fall into gimmicks or something that promised a quick response, yes! But intuitively I knew it wasn't right or the long term.
I became a personal trainer in college, moved into natural/holistic health, started giving colonics and went back to school for holistic nutrition. To now be where I am today. My struggle often came with my body not matching my knowledge. BUT, that is the thing, a book or text is not my body. Its an idea, its a theory, it is someone else's success but it is not me.
As I lived, grew mentally and physically, my body changed. I had to work within that change. I didn't do well at times. It might effect my mood that day, or sex, or allow me on occasion to look in the mirror and say who is this girl. Now, I didn't hyper-focus on it daily but I did think about it when getting dressed or if a client came in and I wondered if I looked enough the part.
One day, it clicked for me. One day I realized that this is a journey. A journey that will last my whole life. I will always be changing, evolving, and so will my body. I chose to focus on my favorite parts first. My eyes, i love my blue eyes. Ive never had contacts, I see well and they are super blue. I now have other favorite parts of my body. I didn't get stretch marks on my stomach but I did on both of my hips. I let the kids know when they see them, I received them from what my body did to grow them. I said I want them to stay forever because they are there because I have you both. So they each claim a side :)
Now I measure my goals on the mirror and reframing how I look at things. FOR INSTANCE. I struggle with my boobs. As you can see from the pic above, while nursing they got very large. Now I am lean and thin, so I have no boobs yet the skin that stretched to feed my babies is there and hollow. I also have stretched skin on my stomach, so when I am in a plank position and look down.... well it's not the prettiest thing Ive seen. BUT it is me. I also know that those are things that I can't change with my own work. I would need a doctor to remove skin or give me boobs. But knowing I am doing the very best I can is actually very calming to me.
We have to get to this place at our own time. Others can say, you look great. Or your partner could admire you. We, as the one looking in the mirror, have to see it. We have to see the progress, the life, and the positive things that are unfolding. We have to love the mirror.
Caption for pics: 22 yr old sarah, taking a real camera selfie, pic 2 me, before running a half marathon still nursing charlie, my second child. my morning abs, empty stomach, post first pee. Best they will look all day :), pic 4 I am bending forward for the purpose of this post to show my extra skin. BIGGEST thing I rememeber from these pics is not how I looked... how I felt based on what I was going through at the time.
Thank you for allowing me to share ( this was a tough one)
