Feeling good about my body

I've been doing stretches every day. I miss a day once in a while, but I've been pretty good with sticking to this routine. My arms look more defined, as well as my abs. The stretches I'm doing are simple but so effective. Just now I grabbed my lovehandles (hehe), and I noticed that they'd gone down from more than handfuls, to just fingerfuls. The up and over stretch does a lot for that.

Recently I've managed to lose weight and tone my body in such healthy ways and without any scary body image obsessions. When I look in the mirror, I'm thinking positive thoughts about how beautiful and healthy I look. It's hard to believe that at one point, I would look in the same mirror with those loathsome feelings of inadequacy. It's difficult to overcome such insecurities, but so very beneficial. It's so much easier than I thought to keep my mind and body healthy. Eating tofu and broccoli everyday, stretching everyday, and taking time to relax everyday has made me feel so healthy and positive. Of course I still have bad days, but the good days are filled with so much joy and peace.

Today the snow was so blowy outside. When I wanted to do my stretches (I turn the TV on to the nature music channel and do them in the livingroom with the curtains wide open), I felt really unmotivated and even though I wanted to do my routine, neither my body nor my mind wanted to cooperate. So, I sat myself down, closed my eyes, and spent 10 minutes visualizing. I was walking through a path in a forest. I made sure I really saw the forest, got a close look at my surroundings. Eventually I climbed over a huge fallen branch, and found a boarded up cottage. It was a really good visualization, and afterward I felt wonderful. It totally shook the blahs away, and enabled me to do my stretches properly, without feeling like I was lagging.

So there's a lesson. Having a bad day? Put on some relaxing music and visualize a walk through a forest!