90 Dollars, 90 Days...How Will it Change Me?

Today, 8.8.08, the luckiest day of the century for the Chinese People and the start of the 2008 Summer Olympics (Which ironically are hosted in Beijing!) I began a 90 day workout regimen. Honestly, I didn't plan to start today, it's just that I moved home on August 1 and was determined to engage in a healthier lifestyle once I moved to St. Louis and before I moved to New Orleans at the end of the year. Maybe Chinese Luck is on my side!! So for the first part of this week, I spent going around to many fitness centers near my parents' home to find a place that I felt I could really obtain my fitness goals. Prior to beginning my search I knew that I wanted an intimate facility offering a non-contractual membership, was in close proximity to my home and one that would be in my budget. No Pressure, Right?? Well, I found one! The facility is owned by a husband and wife who are both Physical Therapists and the husband is also a Physician Assistant at a major health care system here in town. I set up an appointment with their Circuit Coach and began learning about my body.

Those of you who know me, know that I've struggled with my self image for a while, particularly after I had multiple surgeries and engaged in a pretty sedentary lifestyle. While my personality is bubbly and full of life, I wasn't maintaining an active lifestyle, and well that quite honestly make you depressed and unhealthy. On top of that I noticed that it had literally been years since I had actually "looked" at my body. I mean really looked at it. Every morning I'd make sure that my face was pretty but would ignore that rest of me. Some of that might be attributed to living in a dorm and not really having a full length mirror in a community bathroom to check myself out, but I think the deeper reason here, was that I found it easier to ignore the rest of me so that I wouldn't have to face the feelings of resentment and disgust that I did when I did accidentally get a glimpse of that "bucket of lard"...

If you're still reading, then you're probably a friend of mine and you know that I love you!

It's amazing how much I learned during my Psych degree about self perception and yet I was falling victim to the exact things I knew not to. Such as trying to obtain the image of the models we see in print and media ads. Well here's a shocker....they are so distorted that they are literally, physically unattainable! Check out this Dove video if you don't believe me: http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.ca/flat2.asp?id=7134
I, Mona, was letting society depict my self worth and beauty by the size of my waist...are you kidding me?!?! Well, I'm not letting that happen anymore. With the help of many of my friends I've decided to work on a healthier me: a healthier mind, a healthier body, and a healthier soul. Oh and another little tid-bit, you all know that I so cordially want to have love in my life and for me that means truly loving myself so that I can truly love another. I definitely think I'm on the right track ;)

My friend Marcia told me, "Mona, the person that you are, you would never say the negative things you say to yourself, to another being. Then why do you think you are deserving of that???" Wow, that will ground you!

My friend Marilyn said to me, "Mona, YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL, I'm not lying to you, YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!"

I used to always tell my friend JaKeitha that I would wait to buy clothes until I lost weight. She nipped that one in the butt right away! She told me, "Babe, that can be really dangerous. If you don't love yourself right now, you are not going to love your self then (some arbitrary date in the future when I thought I'd be happy and skinner)

So, here I am on 8.8.08, ecstatic to go to the gym. I found one I really like and one that is in my budget. 90 dollars for 90 days.....How will it change me?