I’ve got some real talk for you today…

Last week, I had one of THOSE days. You know the days where you just feel gross and blah. I’ll preface this post by saying that these days are few and far between for me at this point in my life- luckily. But I do remember a time in my life where even when I barely ate anything and worked out a ton, I felt gross. I would look in the mirror and point out all the things I didn’t like. But, after many years of work on this and following some super inspirational and motivating women like Neghar Fonooni and Jill Coleman, I can happily say that *most* of the time I feel pretty darn great about myself. I work hard, I eat well (most of the time), I drink wine and I indulge when and where I want to. I am proud of all my body can do for me and I’ve really learned to love my body.

With that said, it doesn’t mean that I don’t slip into the dark spot and have days where I can’t pull myself out of it. However, these days I am able to take a step back, acknowledge the fact that I am being irrational and try to put into perspective WHY I’m being that way:

• Is it “that” time of the month?
• How have my eats been? Have I been eating out more than usual? Going to more parties than usual? Eating too many sweets?
• What have my workouts looked like?
• Have I been drinking too much?
• How have I been sleeping?
• Do I have something else going on my life that’s causing me stress and therefore inhibiting my ability to practice a positive body image mindset?

When I do this, I can generally figure out why I feel less than great about myself. Last week, I was PMSing, I had had an overly indulgent weekend and I was tired. When I thought about those things, it made sense as to why I wasn’t feeling my best. By putting it into perspective, I was able to acknowledge my feelings and realize that I was having a “day” and that I hadn’t gained weight, I wasn’t flabby and I didn’t lose muscle or strength. Once I realized this, I was able to accept the day and feelings for what they were an move on. And, you know what? When I woke up the next day and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror, I actually laughed at how ridiculous my feelings the previous day were! How silly was I to feel so gross about myself!

But, these are always learning experiences for me because not every day can be sunshine and roses. And I firmly believe that even those who coach women on body image, women empowerment and to love ourselves no matter what, have “those” kinds of days, too. We are human. We have emotions. Emotions can overtake our sensible thinking. And sometimes you just have to succumb to the feelings- as good or bad as they are. Which is why I think- as crazy as I sound in this post- that it was important for me to share this with you. I want you to know that you aren’t alone when you have off days, but I also want to help you take a look at the bigger picture and try to put into perspective WHY you’re feeling a certain way. When we can track back and figure out WHY we are feeling a certain way, it helps us figure out how to move on and not let those feelings totally derail ourselves. It helps put us into action to make the changes necessary to feel better about ourselves- whether that’s a physical action or mental action or a combination of the two is up to you.

So, that day last week, rather than letting those feelings totally ruin my day, I took a shower, had a glass of wine and got in comfy clothes. And soon enough I was feeling much better…. or at least better than I would’ve felt had I just laid on the couch in a fit of self-pity 😉

Every day we have a chance to start over, which for me was starting with some self love and appreciation as soon as I woke up. We are all entitled to our feelings, but it’s how we react to them that’s what is important.

Questions for you: Do you ever have days like this where you’re feeling off? How do you get yourself out of your funk?