Hey Beautiful,

This morning my trainer tagged me in a picture that was everything that I needed to hear today. Funny how that works out. 

Before my workout this morning I took some new measurements so I could see how much progress I've made, according to the tape measure. In a little over a month it's been 2 inches. I told myself, "Two inches is still wonderful. It's better than gaining two inches. Be proud of that." 

I got done with my workout this morning and read these words: 

Can I get an Amen? Perfection! I have a love/hate relationship with social media. Because of it I have gained some pretty great people in my life, my trainer one of them, but it's also the perfect place to find discontentment about yourself. We see so many rockin bodies and we get envious. We see sayings like, "don't settle for mediocre," and so we start doubting ourselves. We wonder if we are settling because we aren't trying to kill ourselves to get to the next level. 

Just because we are in the process of getting that rockin body, or whatever it is you're chasing after, doesn't mean we're settling for mediocre. This is what I've been telling myself. We all have different goals in mind. I have just really had to back off and tell myself, you are enough! I may not be where I want to be with every aspect of my life, but I'm so far from where I once was. 

Maybe this is as good as my body will ever look. Will that be enough for me? It should be. I will keep working hard to stay healthy, and if it changes then that is incredible, but if it doesn't, then that should be incredible too. It has birthed 4 children, it has nursed 3 babies, it has withstood a lot of pain, and it's still going.  I have battle wounds to reflect just how much it's been through, and it's far from perfect. 

There is still body fat on it, there are freckles that are all over it. There are these little lines that are starting to show around my eyes, but I'm not going to dislike myself any longer. I'm proud of myself and I'm loving the changes that are happening. 

I want to show my daughters that if you don't like something about yourself, you have the power to change that. I want to give them self confidence to know that doesn't mean undergoing any kind of plastic surgery. They don't have to be "perfect," I don't have to "perfect," you don't have to be "perfect" to be beautiful. We are all beautiful, we just have to believe that about ourselves.  

I am beautiful, just the way I am. Beauty isn't reflected on what size my waist is, what the number on the scale is, or even how perfect my skin is. It's reflected on the way I live. The way I love. The way I treat people. 

One thing I've learned for sure is how you can start with one goal, and it escalates from there. I've reached a place where I have realized just how important it is to love myself through all stages of my journey. Not just when I feel I've "arrived" at where I want to be. 

Do I still beat myself up sometimes and think I'm not doing good enough because I haven't made as much progress as so and so on the flipping Internet? Yes! I'm ridiculous like that sometimes. I'm real. I'm not going to lie about it. I doubt myself, and where does it get me? Nowhere! Absolutely nowhere. We're all different. Our journeys are different. Our bodies are different.

I'm sure we can all agree on one thing though, we all want to be happy and healthy. So let's do that. Leave some encouragement for someone today. You know how much you need it. They're no different. 

Until NextTime, 

Erica