Spreading the Word of Self-Acceptance

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I have some fun news!!

They did an article, Health Bloggers You'll Love and my blog was featured! Wow, I was blown away by the mention and by what they wrote. Here are some snippets...

These writers offer passionate insight and smart advice on the subjects that matter to you most.

So many health blogs, so little time. That’s why we scoured the Internet and selected the healthy-living voices that are truly worth your clicks….these passionate folks bring unique perspectives and well-tested wisdom to their subjects. And, above all, their feeds are just plain great reads. Get ready to hit “follow”!

Best Weight-Loss Inspiration Blog (<-- br="" me="" s="" that="">

Divorce, raising two kids and the occasional fall into a vat of cheese puffs haven’t derailed Michelle Funez’s efforts to get healthy. What makes her blog so inspiring isn’t just her fitness feats (triathlons!) but her journey to self-acceptance.

Words of Wisdom: In a slump? Go to the gym and do nothing (or almost nothing). “It’s maintaining the routine that’s important.”

There's so much for me to love here. In just a couple paragraphs they captured several things that are really important to my message, like falling into cheese puffs and still being successful. And I really liked the "journey to self-acceptance" quip. I don't feel like I write about that in an overt way but the writer (Courtney Rubin) picked up on it and chose to highlight it. I love that. Thank you Courtney!

At the end of the day, in a more profound way than we tend to consider, eating choices that leave us feeling good about ourselves, moving on from slip-ups, choosing to believe we can reach our goals - it all comes back to self-acceptance which for me presupposes some other self- things, like self-love, self-worth.

In my youth and early adulthood I was accused of being selfish. For years I carried with me, still carry, the fear that I'm selfish. I won't get into the natural-ness of an adolescent or young adult - not to mention one who happens to be working through some heavy emotional childhood baggage - being selfish. But to assign a young person with such a label - especially a young person that is sensitive, introspective, highly self-critical - that can stick with you. And it stuck with me.

So I worked to understand what part of focusing on me is not about being selfish but about self-care. Oh my, this is turning into a whole 'nother blog post. I want to write this post. I will write it. Not today, maybe next time.

Before I close I'll share another fun bit of blog-news. I was once again included in Healthline's The Best Weight Loss Blogs of the Year for 2015. Thank you Healthline! The best thing about getting media attention is that it means I am spreading the word. What's the word I want to spread?

You don't have to be perfect. It's not about willpower or determination. I don't possess any more motivation than any other fat girl that really wants to be fit. We've gotten the absolute wrong instruction from the diet industry and it's not our fault that their methods never worked for us. There is a way. Change your thoughts, baby steps, never give up, find your unique way, grow, learn, think, do...slowly and as clumsy as you might need to. Dare to want something. I found my way and I was just as lost as anyone else out there.

I'm going to get all weepy if I keep going so I'll stop here. Thanks again to Health magazine and Healthline. I am honored to be noticed by these media companies who also share so much of my message. And to my readers, some of whom have been following me for the over 8 years I've been blogging - thank you the most. I couldn't spread this message without you.

The Magic Kingdom of Food

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In the days leading up to our Disneyland trip I was all about "I'm going to make goal-oriented food choices and try to get in a run while we're there." Ha!

Road trip!

I'll back up. Miguel and I decided to take the kids to Disneyland together. It's one of those classic parent/child experiences that neither of us wanted to miss out on, so we did it together. Can I just say how incredibly grateful I am to have an ex-husband who can do something like this? There's a reason I married this man, he really is a good guy and I'm so proud of our co-parenting relationship.

We made the drive on Sunday and it was about 5-minutes into our 7 hour journey that I broke into the snack-size Oreos. Which weren't very "snack size" in that they contained six full size cookies. I think two would be more appropriate. Of course that didn't stop me from eating all six.

In terms of food, it was much the same for the rest of the trip. I chose something indulgent at every snack and meal, fish-and-chips, candy bars, chips, milkshakes...you get the idea. I made a couple slightly better choices, like a grilled chicken breast burger instead of a hamburger, but mostly it was all-bets-are-off eating.

We went to Disneyland two years ago and I went back and read that post, seeing I did the same thing back then. I guess it's unrealistic for me to eat clean in the magic kingdom. As far as going for a run, that's an even bigger laugh. We drove for 7 hours on Sunday, so no run that day. Then we spent 10-15 hours per day walking around Disneyland for the next two days...again, no run. And on Wednesday morning when we got up to drive home, my left hip hurt so bad I was limping. I think it was all the carrying of Myra.

I'll share some of my favorite pictures before going on.

The looks on their faces...priceless

Our brave Padowan

45 minutes in line, worth it.

Can you tell we're related by our expressions?

Our friends The Browns joined us on day 2, so fun!

Always a family

So, I'm home...nudging myself back into my normal way of eating. I got on the scale Thursday morning and I think I was up by around 3 pounds. It will take me a little while to work that off but I'm not too worried about it.

I went for a run today. I haven't run in a while so I decided to just head out the door and run until I didn't want to anymore. The desire to stop running came at around mile 7.7, so I decided to push on to close out 8 miles for a total run time of around 1 hour, 26 minutes. And then I was still two miles from home so I had a nice cool-down walk.

I have big plans for next week. I plan to put some good food in and get back into my gym routine, which I've been out of for weeks on end now. That's not good for my body, but more important, not good for my mind. Plenty of distractions in the air here but those are resolved now so I can focus on me again. Life never stops getting in the way. I've said this a million times but it's so true, this journey is not about figuring out how to always stay on track, it's about figuring out how to get back on track once we're off. Ideally, quickly and without too much negative consequence, like weight gain.

And in my next post - stay tuned for some fun news in the blog-fame department! Hint: if you have the current edition of Health magazine, look on page 82!