Dear Former Me

Dear Lisa

 My heart aches watching you sobbing in your car at Rylee’s nursery school last November, tears spilling over your fingers and wetting the steering wheel you were gripping so tightly.

Of course you were crying; your life was a mess:  50 lbs. overweight, your marriage on the rocks, business failing, stressed over the kids.  The world was collapsing around you and you felt so lost and alone.  Well, I want to tell you a few things.  First, it gets better.  Your marriage is strong again.  You are in the best shape of your life.  The business finally might a profit last month and the kids are just fine.  Second, (time for a little tough love here) you are better than you are behaving right now.  Not talking to your husband, leaving the mail unopened so you don’t have to look at the bills you need to pay, eating whatever is in front of you without even tasting it – in the words of Dr. Phil, “How’s that working for you?”  Clearly, it’s not.  Closing your eyes to your problems does not make them go away, you have to face them, even though you don’t want to.  Finally, self esteem is earned not given.  Do you know how you get self esteem?  You do hard things.  You do things outside your comfort zone.  Like start a blog.  Like get over your body image issues and walk on stage in a bikini.  As your confidence grows you will be able to be strong in other areas of your life too.

Lisa, you are not the person you were last November.  You are not crying now.  You are stronger.  You are healthier.  You are happy again.

Love,

Lisa from today

This was part of Fitness Cheerleader’s August Blogger Challenge.

Sheslosingit.net (c) 2012 Lisa Traugott.  All rights reserved.  No portion of this blog, including any text, photographs, and artwork, may be reproduced or copied without written permission.