Work it

on my run this morning (it started snowing! brrrr!)

Hi all!


I've decided to start a new blog update every Wednesday entitled "Workout Wednesday" (clever, right?)


I'm hoping that it will keep me accountable to actually being active, and that it will be a place for you and I to share our inspirations, favorite workouts, and that this can be a space of encouragement for one another! :)


So for my first Work out Wednesday I thought I'd share a bit of my own fitness story...


This January I decided it was time I really applied myself to being active. All throughout highschool and the beginning of college I was an entitled "bean pole." I could eat whatever I wanted and had the type of metabolism that kept the weight off and kept me at that bean pole stature. Fast forward three years and I managed to gain thirty pounds. I told my doctor it was my body's way of "becoming a woman!" Aka my metabolism finally slowed down and I developed curves for the first time in my life.


At first, I hated this. I was used to not having to work out and eating whatever I wanted. I wasn't used to being a larger pants size or needing to work out in order to feel healthy and be at the weight I wanted. I have struggled with the realization that I am no longer a "bean pole" over the last year and at the start of 2013 really decided I needed a mind shift.


Before I could become active, I realized I would have to do it for myself and not because I "needed" to lose weight but because I wanted to become healthier. I looked myself in the mirror and decided it was time to embrace my curves. I actively try to look at every person I come accross as a child of God and as beautiful. If I wanted to truly see others that way, I needed to see my own self that way.

And with this mind shift came a lot of freedom. I recognized my own beauty and also that if I wanted to get more fit and healthy-I should simply just do it for myself because it makes me feel good. And if my tummy shrinks while I'm at it-awesome.

Since then, I've joined the gym at school and sometimes am good at going, other weeks I struggle and put it off. My hope is that I keep trying and get better at making fitness a priority. And when I am feeling down or frustrated with the lack of immediate results to remind myself: Hey LB, you are beautiful just the way you are.


Try it yourself:


Hey, ___________, you are beautiful just the way you are.


I think that's a fact worth remembering.


Love,
LB
                                                                                                             What inspires you to be healthy?
                                          How do you encourage yourself? Especially when you feel frustrated?