Beautifully Imperfect

Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart. - Kahlil Gibran

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it. - Confucius
 
Most of what I write about for Running on Heavy are my struggles with weight loss and how I try to motivate myself to keep moving towards good health in a positive way.  I talk about my fat rolls, the silly things I do, my nacho addiction, and trails I visit.  I can get pretty personal with what I post.  What I haven't written about is finding beauty within ourselves.  So here goes...and it's pretty damn personal.

Let me start by saying something that I believe to be true - YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL.  I know this because we are all beautiful.  Whether or not you choose to see that beauty is up to you.

We all have our days where we feel fat or less than pretty/handsome.  And sometimes people say things to us that cause us to feel badly about ourselves.  It's one thing to be told something for our own good but it's another to be told something negative about our appearance "just because".  That is something I don't tolerate because it's unnecessary.  Constructive comments are good.  Comments filled with concern for one's well-being are good.  Comments that purposely make someone feel like they just sprouted a giant hump on their back and that their face is covered with warts or hairy moles are cruel.  The wrong words said at the wrong time by the wrong person can be hard to shrug off.  Believe me, I can relate.   

Now, having said that, I know that I am beautiful.  No, I may not be a size 4 (hell, I'm not even a size 10!!), or have the haircolor or eyecolor du jour and I'm not tall but I am me and that makes me spectacular.  I am beautifully imperfect and I love that about myself.  I try hard to not let society's concept of beauty dictate how I present myself to the world.  Yes, I am trying to lose weight and be thinner but that is for health reasons rather than ones of vanity or conformity.

Here is a quote that I love and it sums up how I feel about being beautiful:

 “I am so beautiful, sometimes people weep when they see me. And it has nothing to do with what I look like really, it is just that I gave myself the power to say that I am beautiful, and if I could do that, maybe there is hope for them too. And the great divide between the beautiful and the ugly will cease to be. Because we are all what we choose.” ― Margaret Cho

Feeling good about yourself and believing in the beauty that belongs only to YOU is an important part of living a healthy, fulfilling life.  Choosing to accept the power to look at yourself in a mirror and say "I'm beautiful" and then actually BELIEVE it is life-changing.  Try it.  See what happens.  I bet you smile more, laugh more and live more.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that starts with you and loving what you see.

Happy Trails!
Valeka 

Limit (less)

Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them - Albert Einstein

The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible. - Arthur C. Clarke

I had a great visit with my parents this weekend.  Going home almost always relaxes my mind.  The pace there is slower so it's a nice reprieve from the hustle and bustle of regular life.  The weather during my visit was cold and drizzly but it brought back wonderful memories of my early days of running.

I used to run in all kinds of weather but always loved running in the gloomy, drizzly, sleety weather.  I mostly enjoyed it because I KNEW that other people would be home in their cozy, dry clothes thinking that the weather was not favorable enough to go outdoors.  I, on the other hand, refused to allow the weather to dictate when I would run.  I would imagine a sunbeam shining down on me, keeping me warm and dry as I made my way through the grayness.

For a moment this weekend, I found myself being one of those people that allowed a perceived limit to keep me from doing what I wanted to do.  Big Baby and I went outside so she could do her business.  I asked her to hurry because it was cold and rainy and we "needed" to get back indoors.  She had other plans.  She was enjoying her time outdoors regardless of the weather and pulled towards the street.  I was reluctant and cold but asked if she wanted to go for a walk.  She looked up at me with those big beautiful brown eyes and I knew the answer.  I grumbled about walking in the crappy weather but shortly after we started, I felt that sunbeam breaking through the grayness and it warmed me from the inside out.  BB and I walked on for several blocks and even did a little bit of running - not walking or wogging but RUNNING.  She was happy and so was I.

Once we were back indoors and dry, I began to think of all the limits we place on ourselves because we feel (or are told) we can't or shouldn't do something.  Some limits are necessary but most are self-imposed out of fear or procrastination or just flat out laziness.  Those are limits that we shouldn't fuel.  If we gave the same amount of energy to being limitless as we do to concocting reasons why we can't do something, we would be unstoppable.  Right now, I have very few limits.  My future is wide open and it's invigorating.  And thanks to Big Baby, I removed another limitation I didn't realize I had set on myself.  She helped me see that I can't wait for the perfect moment to start something because we don't always get that perfect moment.  Sometimes, you just have to make a move and trust that there will be a sunbeam out there in all of that gray.

Happy Trails,
Valeka