So this is it…I will be an “after.” I am tired of being a “before.” I look at all the magazines and feel terrible because the before picture looks just like me, and the after picture looks like something I can never attain. But I watched an episode of Oprah recently that discussed how changing the way I talk to myself can change the results I get. The show talked about how acting like I am already there (wherever I want to be) will help get me there. So today (as of this minute, forgetting even this morning), I am different.

• I am a runner. My “run” last Friday at the park was hard, but great. And only a runner could finish that. (I delete comment that could be negative…)
• I am respectful to my body. I am eating foods that my body will use as fuel. I am eating in a way that is not harmful to my body and that is preserving the body I have been given. I do not hurl insults at my body and I do not berate it for not looking the way I feel it should.
• I am honest. I do not lie to myself about what I eat. I do not (to quote Izzy from Grey’s) believe that if I eat a whole tub of butter and no one sees me, the calories do not count. I am writing down what I eat, even when it is ugly, and seeing mistakes as chances to learn and grow. It’s about time I started using my counseling skills on myself, right?

So that’s where I’m starting. Today. I am an after.