31 Days: Do What Will Make You Feel Better About Yourself

We all have it - that thing that makes us dislike ourselves. For 10 years, I formulated plan after plan on how to lose weight. Being overweight made me hide. It made me skip my high school reunion because I was embarrassed by how I looked. It made me question my worth. Then, 3 years ago, my company brought in Weight Watchers to conduct weekly meetings onsite. They even paid for half of the membership fee. Something about that plan clicked for me and for the first time, I was putting my plan to lose weight into action. I set a goal of losing 50 pounds by my 50th birthday and I reached my goal. Other than getting a college degree, it was the first tangible goal I had achieved in my life.

For the first time in a long time, I bought clothes that I liked. And I felt good in those clothes. I was able to maintain the majority of that weight loss for about a year. Then I started to return to my old ways of turning to food for comfort and before I knew it, I couldn't fit into those clothes that I liked and I found myself hiding again.

Tonight I was at a meeting at a coffee shop and saw someone I hadn't seen in a couple of years. Skinny me would have made a point to go chat with her, to see how she was doing. But chubby me didn't feel worthy of talking to this person. I was embarrassed by the baggy clothes I was wearing to hide the extra pounds. I left that coffee shop with a new determination to quit planning to lose weight and actually do it.

For you it may be something different that has you hiding. Whatever it is that will make you feel better about yourself, do it. Life is too short to spend any more days hiding.

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