Before you start your journey ask yourself "who am I doing this for" then do it.

It's really easy to tell people "I started working out and eating well that is how I lost so much weight and became happier as a person" but that would be lying. It would be EASIER to say AND to hear that because sometimes we forget that the really HARD things we want to accomplish takes a LOT of work..a lot of trial runs. Ups and downs. Crying and wanting to quit. That all of the things we want in life the REALLY hard things come with a LONG road of obstacles and it would be easier to tell you "all I did was this"....but people need to remember that shifting your health completely is WHOLE MINDSET CHANGE.

It is a BUNDLE DEAL of mental, emotional and physical and you have to be prepared to work on ALL of it at the same time. 

We grow up with a mindset that we have to look a certain way that the way we look determines our own worth in many ways.  We all know that society really digs its claws into us making us sometimes obsess over looks and we start to compare ourselves to everyone else... which in the end impacts how we feel about ourselves. The media and how appearance is portrayed really does a number on us growing up and even deep into adulthood. We grow up feeling like we are supposed to look a certain way, feel a certain way, act a certain way and after a while it becomes embedded into who we are and who we become. Then as adults we tend to focus on appearance and if others think we look good or not.

I hate to say it but it is true. I know for me looking back I spent WAY too much time obsessing over how I can make myself look good so others think that I look good. WHAT I SHOULD have been focusing on is what can I do FOR ME to make me HAPPY in many different ways.

That is the ultimate question here. I want to look good, feel good, be happy etc. But how can I do ALL of that? HOW CAN I become happier as a whole? It is all about mindset.

GET OUT of your head and stop focusing so much on I WANT TO LOOK THIS WAY. Shift that mindset to "I WANT TO FEEL THIS WAY" When you start to focus on HOW you want to FEEL everything changes. It isn't about looking a certain way it is about growth in all different aspects that is going to completely transform you and who you are and our outcome. How you feel mentally, emotionally and physically WILL impact you as a person as a whole. You cannot be the best version of yourself until you get out of your head. Stop telling yourself that you can't do something or become something because you are really the only person that is going to help you reach those goals.

STOP focusing on "I need to look this way, I hate the way I look, I HATE I HATE I HATE" that is ALL WE DO. I HATE THE WAY I LOOK. Because that is EMBEDDED INTO YOUR HEAD TO HATE THE WAY YOU LOOK. THAT DOES NOT MATTER because at the end of the day you need to stop focusing on HOW you look and start saying "I LOVE THE WAY THAT I FEEL" when you can say "I love the way I FEEL" then everything else will follow.

LOOKING GOOD does NOT change the way you feel about yourself as a whole. Feeling good in a healthy way, having a clear mind and being happier with who you are...talking about your feelings and taking care of yourself emotionally, mentally and spiritually that is what needs to happen as well. You cannot diet and lose weight and instantly become happier. I always thought "if I was skinny I would be happier"

IT IS A MINDSET. YOU HAVE TO SHIFT THAT MINDSET. What can I DO to MAKE ME FEEL GOOD EMOTIONALLY AND MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY AS A WHOLE. One thing that I learned in therapy is the ONLY PERSON THAT IS GOING TO SAVE YOU IS YOU. You can have people supporting you, cheering you on but YOU have to do the work. Ultimately it is up to you to change your mindset on caring so much about how you look or how other people view you to saying SCREW IT IM GOING ALL IN IM DOING IT ALL FOR ME. To better ME" We are NOT HERE to please other people. We are not here TO LOOK GOOD FOR OTHER PEOPLE. This is your life. MAKE THOSE POSITIVE CHANGES TO BETTER IT.

You need to make the positive changes in YOUR LIFE so you can be better in ALL OF THE WAYS. CUT THE TOXIC PEOPLE OUT. Take breaks, shift your energy. FOCUS ON YOU. Tell your friends and family HEY I am doing me for a bit. I'll still be here. I will care for you and love you but I HAVE to shift my mindset to taking care of EVERYONE else ALL THE TIME and put some of that into me too. The biggest thing holding ME back was the fact that I started to lose who I was as a person because I was giving everything to everyone else and there is nothing wrong with being a good parent/partner/etc. But what about you? who are you? are you happy with who YOU ARE.

Can you look in the mirror and say "Man I LOVE who I am looking at right now." I COULDN'T SAY THAT because I didn't recognize that person anymore. I tried SO HARD to be SO HAPPY all the time and it just was TOO MUCH I was losing myself. I gave EVERYTHING to my family for YEARS while I lost myself every day and that was okay with me. Then it got to a breaking point of me questioning my own self worth and existence and I soon realized I need help. I HAVE TO MAKE A MAJOR SHIFT IN MY LIFE. I want to be happy I want my kids to see me happy I want to look at myself in the mirror and say "I LOVE YOU AND IM PROUD OF YOU AND I AM HAPPY with who I am"

So I did. I went to my doctor and I said this is where I am at in my life and I can't fake my happiness anymore. I am unmotivated, unhealthy, depressed, I don't love myself anymore and my children deserve better. Do you know HOW HARD it is to say those words? to say "my family would be better off without me" THE ONLY PERSON WHO IS GOING TO SAVE ME IS ME. I had to save me. Sure I could talk about it. But ME ME ME! I AM THE ONLY person who is going to say "Enough is enough"

I want to be happy. I want to be mentally, emotionally and physically happy. So this time I decided I want to work on me I am going to join the gym, keep going to therapy, tell my family "HEY it is time for you guys to pick up some of the slack around here and we are all just going to have to figure it out" and I JUMPED IN. It is NOT about looking a certain way. Get that out of your head. It is about FEELING a certain way. You can be fit and just looking INCREDIBLE but are you mentally and emotionally happy as well? If you aren't working on ALL of it, you won't EVER be happy with who you are. You deserve to be happy with WHO YOU ARE.

STOP and look at yourself, tell yourself WHAT YOU WANT and WHO YOU WANT TO BE and save yourself because I CAN PROMISE YOU that NOBODY IS COMING to save you. NOBODY is coming to make these changes for you.

CHANGE YOUR MINDSET AND REMIND YOURSELF THAT YOU ARE WORTH IT. 

Thank you for taking the time to read I look forward to writing weekly about my health journey and everything that has come with it! Feel free to ask any questions or leave a comment here in this thread post that I made I would love to have conversations and to simply chat about whatever is on your mind. I will also start podcasting again starting this week. It is time to get real and raw! I will be posting weekly about fitness tips, exercises, so on. So be sure to subscribe to follow!

I am VERY transparent and don't believe in holding anything back so I hope to see you and chat with you over in the forum! 

MY PERSONAL HEALTH JOURNEY FORUM LINK: Samantha's [admin] personal journey forum chat

xo, Sam