I am my worst critic!

-by Mindy Irish

It's normal.  It happens to all of us.  When you look at you every day in the mirror, you're the person who sees you the most.  You know what you eat, good or bad.  You know what you think.  You know your habits and your routines.  And, if you're like me, you find it very common and easy to pick yourself apart.  We should be our own best supporter and cheerleader because we're with ourselves all the time, but often times we're just the opposite!

I woke up one morning last week and found myself heading down the "negative path".  You know, it's one of those days when you can't get anything right, your trouble spots are giving you tons of trouble, and you've forgotten about anything good that's going on in your life.  I'm well aware I'm in that mindset and I often refer to it as the "downward spiral".  It's not a fun place to visit and I don't suggest you go there!

Then it happened.  I was getting dressed to go to a job site with a renovation client and I grabbed what I thought was my usual pair of dark jeans.  I slipped them on and the waist was about three to four inches out from my stomach.  I was shocked.  I checked the tag and realized these were last year's jeans, or at least I had not had them on since then.  It hit me.  Not too long ago, these jeans used to be TIGHT.  Here I was standing there in awe with them hanging from my waist.

I call it a "Pants Smack".  My pants had to smack me upside the head to remind me of where I had been at one time and where I was now.  That was my body in those jeans last year and this was a new and improved version of me trying to put them on yet again.  I had nothing but celebrations at that moment.  It didn't matter how my day started because I had just had a mental shift!

Our mindset is one of the most powerful tools on our journey.  It can propel us, stall us, or send us backward.  The thoughts and words that run through our minds can be very dangerous to our physical progress.  Ever heard the saying, "If you wouldn't say it to a friend, why would you say it to yourself?"  How true is that?!

There's a book I read with my kids every morning before they head to school.  Ironically, that morning, I read this comment and it really hit home for me.  It wasn't until later on that I realized that read was really for me!  From her book 365 Devotions For Kids, Sarah Young writes:

"When you learn to ride a bike, you quickly learn to keep your eyes on where you want the bike to go. If you look away, then you're likely to go off in the wrong direction, and crash into a ditch or a tree. Wherever your eyes go, your bike soon follows."

For me, my bike was heading down a bumpy path that day.  It would have been easy to derail and continue this negative ride, but amazingly it took a pair jeans to get my bike back on smooth ground!  I realized in that moment that no loose skin, slow progress, jiggly area, or puffy feel is ever going to outweigh the positive progress I've made.  I had to quit talking negatively to myself!  Focusing on the downside takes away joy from my day, distracts me from being a good friend, wife, and mother, and does not add anything to my life. 

So how's your bike path today?  Is your ride bumpy and heading for a fall?  It's a choice we make to stay the course, focus on the positive, celebrate our success, and set all critical self evaluations and negative self talk aside.  May your bike stay full steam ahead and may you continue to find large pairs of jeans in your closet to smack you upside the head, too!  Think it (positively), do it, Fit Friends!