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Is it anti-feminist to blog about weight loss?
I currently weigh more than I ever have in my entire life. To be honest, I wouldn’t mind the number I see when I step on the scale if I were happy with the body I see when I stand in the mirror. (Even when I looked my best and had six-pack abs, I weighed much more than anyone, including my doctors, thought I did.) But I am woefully disappointed with both.
It all started with a hashtag.
Birmingham-based blogger and yoga instructor Melissa Scott posted a photograph of herself practicing yoga wearing only yoga pants and a sports bra and included the hashtag #noshirtnoshoesnoshame and I had to know more about this body positive movement she was striving to forge.
I had no idea I’d lost 20 pounds.
My pants were easier to button, my dresses easier to zip. But since I usually only step on a scale when a medical professional forces me to do so, I had no idea I’d lost 20 pounds.
Then I went to a wellness screening mandated by my health insurance provider, stepped on the scale, looked down and saw a number 20 pounds less than the number I saw the last time I’d weighed myself.
“Your scale is broken,” I declared to the nice nurse practitioner filling out my paperwork. She just laughed and assured me it was not. I didn’t believe her. When I got home I weighed myself again and those 20 pounds were still nowhere to be found. “Maybe my scale is broken, too,” I thought.
Last week my fellow teachers and I returned to work after a two and a half month summer break and that’s when I realized those scales must have been right.
“Oh my gosh! Javacia, you look great!” one co-worker exclaimed. “Wow! You got so skinny!” said another. “Girl, what did you do?” a colleague asked.
Good question. What did I do? And how can I use the same principles I used to lose weight to help me with my writing and blogging goals?
I’ve realized that there are four things that helped me lose weight: mindset, movement, motivation, and momentum.
Sometimes the Universe speaks to us through blog posts.
The other day I read a post titled “Women At War With Their Bodies and How It’s Impacting Their Businesses” on the Boss Babe blog and I felt like the author, Wendy Porter of Crowned for Success, had read my mind and was spilling all my secrets. (more…)
