When you lose weight, make lifestyle changes, change your mentality so you're conquering the world (or at least the perception is that you're doing so), you will hear some stuff....A LOT:
You look so amazing now!
You are really succeeding now!
Things are happening now huh?
now
now
now
now
UGH
I mean, yes....I AM Amazing. But when I keep hearing over and over how great I am NOW, the only thing I can think is...well hell, what was I before?
Yes, some of my shiny self was covered up by my own crap. And I've stopped taking my own crap so I certainly don't take anyone else's.
I've risen up to this challenge called life and taken the reigns. (Can I use some more metaphors here to make it any clearer that YES my life is awesome and I have many more good days than bad which I couldn't say absolutely 18 months ago?)
I AM awesome and I DO look amazing now.
But was I not awesome and amazing before?
During "before"...I got my masters, I started my career, I met and married a man I love deeply, I became a mom overnight and started raised a sweet boy and then got pregnant and became a mom again to my darling girl. My husband described me then, and does now, as a person who never stops; a person with such ambition that I was (and am) constantly looking to improve, setting goals and going for it like a crazy person.
When I think of "before" I see all of that, and I also feel my unhappiness, my restlessness, my dullness. I don't see a whole lot of amazing. Even though I know it is there.
I got so wrapped up in this question of....what on earth was I before....that I went and asked my husband: was I awful then? Was I not awesome? Or even...just a little awesome?
He got really quiet (we were on the phone, I wish I could have seen his face). And then he said: I fell in love with you before. And I married you before. And we started our family before. Of course you were amazing before. I wouldn't have fallen like I did if you weren't.
Thank G-d for this man. And I do...I thank G-d for putting him in my path and for keeping his eyes and his heart so open that he saw all my shiny even when I couldn't.
So please, keep telling people who have made huge life changes that they are awesome and bad ass and incredible. Tell them they look amazing! But please stop using the word "now". Please consider how your comment may make them question who or what they were to you during their "before". (while we're at it let's also get rid of: you're wasting away, and you're so skinny - topic for another time)
I've moved on from my "before" and I don't need one more comparison of my now and then to know how far I've come. What I do need, is to remember to love the person I was before, because without her, I wouldn't be here.
You look so amazing now!
You are really succeeding now!
Things are happening now huh?
now
now
now
now
UGH
I mean, yes....I AM Amazing. But when I keep hearing over and over how great I am NOW, the only thing I can think is...well hell, what was I before?
Yes, some of my shiny self was covered up by my own crap. And I've stopped taking my own crap so I certainly don't take anyone else's.
I've risen up to this challenge called life and taken the reigns. (Can I use some more metaphors here to make it any clearer that YES my life is awesome and I have many more good days than bad which I couldn't say absolutely 18 months ago?)
I AM awesome and I DO look amazing now.
But was I not awesome and amazing before?
During "before"...I got my masters, I started my career, I met and married a man I love deeply, I became a mom overnight and started raised a sweet boy and then got pregnant and became a mom again to my darling girl. My husband described me then, and does now, as a person who never stops; a person with such ambition that I was (and am) constantly looking to improve, setting goals and going for it like a crazy person.
When I think of "before" I see all of that, and I also feel my unhappiness, my restlessness, my dullness. I don't see a whole lot of amazing. Even though I know it is there.
I got so wrapped up in this question of....what on earth was I before....that I went and asked my husband: was I awful then? Was I not awesome? Or even...just a little awesome?
He got really quiet (we were on the phone, I wish I could have seen his face). And then he said: I fell in love with you before. And I married you before. And we started our family before. Of course you were amazing before. I wouldn't have fallen like I did if you weren't.
Thank G-d for this man. And I do...I thank G-d for putting him in my path and for keeping his eyes and his heart so open that he saw all my shiny even when I couldn't.
So please, keep telling people who have made huge life changes that they are awesome and bad ass and incredible. Tell them they look amazing! But please stop using the word "now". Please consider how your comment may make them question who or what they were to you during their "before". (while we're at it let's also get rid of: you're wasting away, and you're so skinny - topic for another time)
I've moved on from my "before" and I don't need one more comparison of my now and then to know how far I've come. What I do need, is to remember to love the person I was before, because without her, I wouldn't be here.
