PTPX

I HATED this photo when I saw it and it ALMOST ruined my day….

I asked my partner to get a “cute” photo of me and Jo Jo at the zoo

When I looked at it, I literally felt disgusted with what I looked like

I felt big, I felt swollen, I felt so unattractive at the moment because I felt sleep deprived, low mood, hormonal, fat and just sluggish

I haven’t been keeping up with my self care in terms of skin care, making an effort with my hair. I don’t have any nice maternity cloths (cause I didn’t want to buy a whole new wardrobe just for a few months)

I then felt like I had really let myself go since becoming a mum. Wondering if my partner thinks the same

But then I just said stop to myself

Stop making a family day out about what you look like. No body else cares, you’re literally at the zoo.

These photos don’t reflect what you look like all the time

And they certainly don’t reflect your self worth

And so I thought id break up your feed with realistic photos in just normal settings that we actually find ourselves in everyday

We compare ourselves to best versions of people on instagram. And with photo editing & AI being used by SO many people right now, I want to remind you that it’s not real

And we can loose touch of reality & day to day life when we look at everyone else’s highlight real on instagram

Where everything has to be aesthetically pleasing & perfect

The perfect home, the perfect routines, the perfect parenting, the perfect body, the perfect skin, the perfect outfit etc etc

Instead of tearing myself down & calling myself horrible things. I rationalized with myself, reminded myself I’m pregnant, I have a 1 year old, I’m TIRED AF!🤣 and that this is just a stage of my life

Then I stopped staring at the photo & all my imperfections & focused on living in the present moment. Which was to spend quality time creating memories with the family

And I didn’t want to create a negative memory just because of one photo

However… this will be used as motivation when I get back to it postpartum 😬🤣😋

We’ve all been there…

We’ve all believed a myth to be true when it isn’t

We’ve all wanted the easy option to be true

We’ve all been naive & gullible

We’ve all had the dream sold to us and did think it was too good to be true, but brought it anyway

We’ve all been given the wrong information in the past

So I’m not judging you! I’ve been there more than once in desperation

But this is my face trying to figure out how to tell you that your beliefs and expectations are not aligned with reality🤣

Because sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth

They want that new shinny object

They don’t want the boring but effective method

Because they perceive the boring basics as too long, not glamorous, too obvious?

When really, it’s the thing that’s going to get them where they want to be

They just first have to accept it and drop those other misconceptions they have believed in for so long

A 💩 product can be wrapped in beautiful, shinny, inviting packaging and people will think it’s great. When really they are buying an elusion. They are buying the hype, not the actual reality. Then convince themselves it’s amazing because they don’t want to be disappointed, when they realize it doesn’t actually do what it says it does on the cover

And that’s what happens when it comes to your health and fitness journey too

You end up wasting your precious time, energy and motivations that just don’t work

The most effective method?

1) stop expecting it to take 8-12 weeks and treating it as a means to end end

2) mentally prepare yourself to do this for a life time (its a lifestyle) not a quick fix. A year is a GREAT time frame to really see great transformative results! But you then have to continue to keep them

3) to improve your diet, knowledge & understanding, you need to track your personal intake. To see how many nutrients you’re getting & what you need to add or take away from your diet to hit your personal targets. Just trying to eat as little as possible is the worst thing you can do for your long term health & results

4) strength train to build muscle. It will speed up your metabolism, build shape, “tone” you up & give you that defined look

It feels unpleasant & uncomfortable in the moment…

but on reflection you realize it’s the difficult conversations & changes that made you transform

Change is uncomfortable. If you’re not uncomfortable, you’re still in your comfort zone

And we all know that you never grow in the comfort zone

And I’m happy to be the person who pushing you to be better

Some people will value the honesty & respect the truth. They welcome the information they are missing so they can become who they need to become

Others will take it as an attack & take it personal. They shut down, they withdraw & they feel hurt instead of inspired. They avoid you because they aren’t yet ready to face their weak areas

I’ve been both of these people

The day I realized that I’m going to have to hear things I don’t like in order to change, was the day I stopped taking it as an attack and instead an act of love

because those people genuinely wanted to see me succeed and change my behavior so that I could reach my goals

Tough love has been the thing that’s changed me the most 🫶🏻

Our last holiday with just the 3 of us 🤰🏽🤴🏾👶🏽✨

Don’t be embarrassed to be the beginner & to make mistakes… it’s the only way to move forward

You’re going to get things wrong. You’re going to find the set backs hard sometimes

You’ll question if you can even do this (you can)

Everyone who is good at something now, was once bad at it until they practiced enough to make it look easy

It’s worse to just never go anything out of fear of judgement, embarrassment or failure

I’d prefer to stubble whilst moving forward than to stay in the same place for years on years

You won’t only achieve your goals and feel amazing for it, you’ll also build character, resilience & self belief

I still have LOADS of development to do, skills to develop & things to learn…

But if my younger self could see me today she would be SOO shocked at what she’s achieved

So start today. Start with no knowledge. Start with an imperfect plan. Start when you don’t feel confident yet

Just start! You’ll figure it out along the way

“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear”