Happy Sunday morning!! Take the time today to think about how awesome you are…because it’s true. Allow Brittany from Itty Bits of Balance to share her story in believing in herself. She has come a long way and you can too! Catch you all later!

Hello fellow FFF readers! My name is Brittany & I blog over at Itty Bits of Balance.

It is an honor and a privilege to be contributing to Tina's Positive Sunday installment with my story of how I achieved the strength & confidence that I carry around with me today.

I'm the first to admit, I can be a complete wack-job at times:

I'm not afraid to make a fool of myself,

and I love to take the occasional crazy face photo.

I try my best to exuberate strength, confidence, and a sense of balance on a daily basis, however, things haven't always been this easy for me.

Throughout my youth, I was battling a constant struggle with weight & body image issues. For as long as I can remember, I was continuously tormented and teased for being roughly 20-30 pounds overweight, and like a lot of young girls I took it very personally. I went through 18 years of fad diets and binges– yet the results were never consistent and as soon as I started to eat normally again the excess weight found its way back.

Finally in 2010, I told myself that enough was enough.

At the age of 19 I decided that I was sick of sulking and feeling sorry for myself-- It was time for me to prove what I was capable of. I woke up one morning, read about The Disney Princess Half Marathon on Gina's blog and decided that I was going to train for it.

Just. like. that.

And boy, did I run my little white booty off.

Now, any normal person would go on vacation after four months of torture, or maybe even take a little trip to the day spa. Me? I decided to go big or go home.

I then proceeded to sign up to run the 26.2 mile Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco, California on October 17, 2010 with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training (Read about my flashback here.) In the process, I simultaneously raised $2,954.20 for the cause. Crossing that finish line was undeniable proof that nothing was going to stop me.

So how does my story pertain to you? Why should you care that I ran a marathon and found my "inner strength"?

Because nobody should EVER live the way that I was living before. All of us are filled with strength just waiting to burst out of our beings and overwhelm us with confidence. The problem is that many of us have that little voice inside telling us that we're "too big", "too small", "too fat", "too slow" or my personal favorite, "too weak." Whether your goal is to run a marathon, be more successful at your job, or even to be a better friend or mother.

Don't listen to that voice. Get up, get out, and go show me your strength!

I'll just be waiting over here making some faces 🙂

• How have you found your “inner strength”? What “little voice” do you need to tell to shut up sometimes?

Happy Sunday, loves! I have another special Self-Love Reflections: YOUR Stories post for you. Please welcome Lisa from the blog Fat Chick Fed Up. She is pretty phenomenal, so I hope you show her some love. 🙂

Hi everyone, I’m "The Chick" (aka Lisa), from over at Fat Chick Fed Up. I'm a wife and stay-at-home homeschooling mama to four. I blog about the epic weight-loss journey of a severely obese woman (that's me!) trying to improve her quality of life and living to tell about it - the sometimes painful, sometimes ugly, but often beautiful story of it. Thanks for letting me hi-jack Tina’s blog today.

I have been blogging on a family blog for a few years now. While I am not new to blogging, what I am new to is taking care of myself and being concerned about my health and fitness. That is why I started Fat Chick Fed Up. I wanted to chronicle my journey to lose 200 pounds the healthy way, and I wanted help doing it.

About 7 weeks ago, when I first decided to start blogging about my weight-loss journey, I had 200 pounds to lose. My starting weight was 330 pounds. In 7 weeks I have lost 21 pounds. My husband (aka "The Chick Magnet"), who is also on this journey with me, has lost 33 pounds in the same amount of time. Check out our first "before and after" shots!  But weight is not the only thing I have lost. Actually, it's not even the most important thing I have lost.

Blogging my weight-loss thing has had some unexpected results. When I first started out, I was scared. No, that’s not the right word. Terrified describes it better. I had not allowed myself to be photographed for years. I had never told anyone my weight, apart from my doctor. I refused to admit how bad the problem really was. I was convinced that I was constantly being watched and judged.

I am glad to say, though, that in addition to the 21 pounds gone, never to be seen or heard from again, I have lost that feeling of terror. With it I have lost a lot of presumptions and presuppositions, a lot of judgment, and a good measure of self-centered pride.

You see, while I was so busy worrying about being judged by other people, especially “fit” and “skinny” people, I was the one standing in judgment. I was so busy hating myself, wallowing in self-pity, convincing myself that I could never change things for myself, that I had decided that is the way everyone else must see me too. I hated knowing that the first impression people had of me was that of a fat, lazy slob. I felt like I automatically had to be on guard whenever I met someone new, all defenses on high alert because I just KNEW what they were thinking. I was completely overcome with shame.

It took me quite a while before I decided to throw caution to the wind and put myself out there for the world to see. I had to get so fed up with my situation that the pain of staying the same was greater to me than the pain of changing.

Taking that leap of faith and writing my very first blog post was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I was so nervous and worried about the reaction I would get. I was disgusted with myself and I figured everyone else would be too.

Guess what?

I was wrong. WAY WRONG.

When I made this realization, I had to apologize to my blog readers. And here I am apologizing to you. Why? So glad you asked.

I am apologizing because I sold you short. I didn’t give you enough credit. I didn’t trust you. Because, really, what I was terrified of was you. I was judging YOU, not the other way around. I was afraid you wouldn't accept me. I was afraid of judgment and ridicule. I was afraid of taking a risk on you.

I’m sorry.

What I have since come to realize is that I am not alone. I read stories like Tina’s struggle with her weight, eating disorder, and own personal issues with self-esteem and I realize that I am not alone. It truly never occurred to me that people who look “skinny” on the outside could be suffering the same internal torment that I was.

I didn’t understand that a dear friend of mine - petite, blonde, beautiful, mom-of-four - could really empathize until she thanked me one day for my blog and said, “You are saying what we all wish we could say.”

I didn’t get it until friends and strangers alike began writing me and telling me how they had struggled, ALONE, for years with similar feelings, with the same lack of self-worth.

It didn’t sink in until people started telling me how brave I was, that I was an inspiration, that they felt the exact same way.

Me? Brave? Inspiring?

Are you sure you have the right person?

All I did was lose 20 pounds.

However, it really wasn’t about the weight after all. It was about my pride and about my self-hatred. Living in that negativity deceived me into believing that I was alone and that I could never change and that no one could ever see anything of value in me while I looked the way I did. What I found through starting this little blog of mine is that the things I was writing about were universal. Just about everyone I know experiences the same feelings and fears at one point or another. It may not always revolve around weight issues, but the feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt are there nonetheless. This is the human condition.

The difference now? I STILL look the same. I still weigh over 300 pounds and have almost 200 pounds to lose.

Now, though, my heart is different. I KNOW I am not traveling this road alone. I know my value is NOT determined by the numbers on the scale. I. AM. NOT. ALONE. And neither are you.

• Have you ever felt judged for your weight? How did you handle it?