The road to loving your body isn’t always easy- but it IS worth it.

I’ll be completely honest with you.

Lately, I just haven’t felt it. “It” being that positive, happy-go-lucky, body confident, vibe that I’ve so proudly cultivated over the past year or so.

In between planning my EXTREMELY diy wedding (that’s happening in LESS THAN TWO WEEKS BTW), moving/renovating  The Nutrition Shoppe, the store my fiance and I both work for (moving, painting, renovating, new sales strategies, woo!), and the onslaught of lots of new graphic/web design work (yay tight deadlines!), I’ve been a little… on edge.

While all of these things happening are very exciting and GOOD things- I do feel like I’m being pulled in a million different directions every second and it’s very hard to keep up. So I apologize for not updating my blog/twitter much recently! Pretty soon life should be back to normal. It’s just a little cray cray at the moment.

As far as fitness goes, while I’ve still been working out and lifting heavy, my diet has not been anywhere near where it should be and I’ve been feeling a little sluggish and soft as a result. While I believe you absolutely shouldn’t restrict foods you love and it’s okay to treat yourself occasionally- it’s when the occasional splurge becomes the norm that you know things are a little out of wack. (I admit that fries and restaurant food have somehow become a mainstay of my diet this past week. While I do not REGRET IT- thinking back, I definitely think a couple of those times I could have opted for something better YAKNOW? Blargh.)

So consequently, there have been times when I want to fall into the “bridal boot camp” mentality, where, “OMG I’M GETTING MARRIED BETTER GET SKINNY” pops up in my head. I’ve been trying to not really give into it, though,  because let’s get real- My closest friends and family are coming to celebrate my fiance and I’s love- not scrutinize my body. It’s actually a little ridiculous how much energy some brides spend on getting skinny for the wedding itself! My best friend Robin actually wrote a fantastic article on this topic, actually, on our joint wedding blog The Unprincess Bride that I HIGHLY encourage you to read, whether you’re a bride or not as it puts a lot of things into perspective.

So while lately I’ve felt a little less than stellar about my body, there’s no way in heck that I’m letting that interfere with the happiest day of my life! My body doesn’t have to be “perfect” for my wedding to be wonderful. and while no, that really isn’t my main concern of this wedding or anything, it definitely doesn’t help my stress levels as you can imagine!

What’s important to realize is that on the path to body acceptance and self-love- you’re going to have times where you may fall back into bad thought patterns as I have recently, but what’s important is you find a way to break out of them. Revisit the steps of How to have a Healthier Body Image, reflect on the positives in your life, and realize- there’s so much more to your character and person than a little bit of softness around the hips or a lack of defined abs. It’s really going to be okay.

The road to loving your body isn’t always easy- but it IS worth it.

I’m going to leave you with an image that really spoke to me today- and is applicable to anyone, at any time. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did 🙂