Shark Week 101

Let me start by making a statement that MAYBE everyone wasn't aware of:

I'm a girl

Shocker, I know. I looked like a boy until I was roughly 15 years old, but yes, I am a girl. Which inevitably means that mother nature hates me and each month one week out of every four is shark week(and I don't mean discovery channel shark week from last week). During shark week you can expect to see the women in your life to partake in some or all of the following acts:

*Lay on the floor and cry
*Talk about how fat she feels
*Show you her fat
*Say that nothing in her closet looks good (This happens anyways but it's worse during this week)
*Cry at nothing
*Absolutely sob at emotional movies
*Scream at you, 10 seconds after she was laughing with you
*Think you hate her if you say the word 'no'
*Complain about how much she does in life, and how you do nothing (even if you do a lot)
*Throw things
*Think every person in life is out to get her
*Have headaches
*And let's go ahead and add cry a little more

And IF, you're one of the lucky, lucky men in the world, the woman in your life is not only on an emotional roller coaster one week out of every four but the week BEFORE shark week is just as bad, if not worse.

Now to add some TMI to this blog, I would like to tell you that Ross gets to be one of the lucky 2 out of 4 weeks guy, because I am an emotional wreck during the week before and the week of. To cut it short and get to the point, last week was my week before. The post that I made was in the state of all of the emotions listed above.

Growing up, I know my parents did not EVER body shame me. The worst thing that ever happened to me was that my dad asked me if I wanted to order a large t-shirt for soccer when I really wore a medium... Gosh dad. The body shaming didn't begin until 6th grade. Girls are MEAN. I mean they will say anything to make them feel the power surging. Especially middle school and high school girls. If someone was mad at you they took the lowest blow possible. For me, the low blow was my weight.

Have you ever heard that you are most like the 7 people you spend the most time around? Even though it wasn't what I wanted to be like, I began body shaming myself because others were body shaming me. For some reason it makes you feel better when you're body shaming yourself along with them.

Watching some of my favorite little girls grow into young teens has made me realize that this was terrible. I never want them to have to go to school and get body shamed or made fun of for things that I think they are perfect for. As girls it's like we are trained to be vicious animals and weight is our #1 thing to target people for. Middle school to high school, high school to college, and college to the big girl world. All girls do it, all girls are guilty, even me.

Even if you don't do it to others, you probably do it to yourself. Do you look in the mirror every morning and tell yourself how perfect you are? Or do you look straight at your perceived flaws? Find your flaws is body shaming, and instead of finding our flaws, we should learn to love our flaws. Believe it or not our flaws are what makes us unique. It's what makes me look nothing like you, and vice versa. We should all appreciate those flaws.

A year into my journey and I have lost a total of 30 pounds and 10 inches off of my waist. I used to wear a size 16-18 and I am now getting closer to swimming in a size 11-12. My body fat percentage in the beginning was 58.4% and as of this morning it is 32.4%. I forget to stop and think about how amazing that is. I get told daily how great I look and I need to tell myself that daily. I have changed myself for the better and even if I am not at my goals I need to learn to appreciate the places that I have been and where I am now.

Remember to take the time to stop and appreciate you for you. Even on shark week try to remind yourself that everything is going to be okay.

A weight loss journey doesn't happen in 2 months. It truly is a life change. When they say life it means you are willing to change everything you do and make it your habits for the rest of your life. Don't give up when you don't see results. And don't be like me and freak out when you gain some weight back. Everyone has told me that maintaining can be WAY harder than actually losing. So keep your head up and picture the future. Set long term goals, and short term goals. Then go out and destroy them!

XOXO,
Audrey