Wednesday, January 3, 2018

The Political Chicken Has Body Pride

Serious body pride.  Do you have it?  Well, you should.  I didn't have it until the beginning of last year.  Something about turning forty spurred me on to do something for myself; something that would benefit me and in turn, my family.  I had no idea, really, when I started the process of shedding a few extra pounds that what I was going to get would be so damn powerful.

I am a woman.  I am a wife and a mom and so much more.  I, like many other mothers, did not manage to lose ALL of the baby weight from my three pregnancies.  I wasn't obese or anything like that, I just had a bigger mid-section than I wanted and that, my friends, is what made me decide to finally do something about my weight gain.

I always admired other mothers with flat tummies and was awed by the willpower I knew it took to get rid of the tummy I began to loathe.  It all came down to one word, 'DIET'.  Yep, it's a scary word.  I knew that if I wanted the slim tummy that I admired on other women, that I was going to have to grab hold of that word and stare it in the face and do some damage.

Enter my lifestyle change; the Fast Metabolism Diet by Haylie Pomroy.  I could explain what it is and how it works, but I'm sure you're intelligent enough to click on the link and research it for yourself, if you want to.  The diet is a 30 day metabolism reset whereby you eliminate all processed foods along with sugar, alcohol, caffeine, dairy, wheat and the like.  Hey, I didn't say it was easy, but it was worth it.

The diet came with exercise recommendations, one of which was to get a massage on Friday.  I have not ever heard of another diet plan suggesting a massage as a form of exercise.  Ever.  I loved that part of the diet.  For four weeks, I got a weekly massage.  Now, it was a little pricey, as my husband will vouch for, ahem, but so worth it.

Four weeks later, I was twenty pounds lighter.  Not only was I slimmer, I was much more confident in my own skin than I had been in a long time, if ever before.  That was enough to keep me going.  I have managed to stick with the lifestyle change, save for my weekly burger and beer, and I have continued to lose more weight.  My total weight loss to date is twenty-seven pounds.  I like to say I've lost almost thirty pounds because it sounds like more.  I will get to a thirty pound weight loss eventually.  

Back to the first words I used to start this little story off with; 'body pride'  That is the absolute best way to describe how I feel about myself now.  I'm confident in other areas, too, don't get me wrong. There is just something about looking good and KNOWING that you look good that does something for you that nothing else can.  Zipping up skinny jeans that fit you also does something for you; it just makes you feel yummy inside. 

There's also something about knowing that you can go to your closet and have a full range of choices is empowering.  Same for buying clothes in a store.  Nothing can hold you back from getting what looks good on you except for maybe the price tag.  Heh.

This was an empowering step I took in my life and if you want to do something to improve or to empower yourself, maybe this is what you're looking for. Go on, make 2018 the year you get some 'body pride'.  You'll be glad you did.