Remember back to my post Monday morning? Those lamentations of not feeling like myself? Well, here we are on Thursday afternoon and things have not really changed. I have been in funky town all this week. And not the groovy “won’t you take me to Funky Tooown!” funky town of my disco-dancing mother either. The I’m-in-a-funk-please-get-me-out funky town. Frankly, I have had enough!

I needed a little bitch slap out of my Negative Nancy attitude and I knew this post topic would do just the trick. A reality check to help snap me out of the funk and back to the real Tina. If I want to feel like myself again, I need to look at what that means and do something about it. Time to put up or shut up, folks!

In order to get back to feeling like myself, I need to know what the even means. What makes me my “best self”? Well, here goes nothing!

I Have Faith: Well ain’t this little exercise already an eye opener. Guess who has slacked on the prayer time this week? *raises hand* Note to self: Whine a little less. Pray a little more. I even picked up a new Bible study book today at the library to help out!

I Treat My Body With Respect: Typically this means working out regularly and being careful about the foods I choose to eat. Well, with a killer headache this entire week I have managed one workout and threw up following it. My appetite has ranged from wanting no food to craving hefty chicken salad sandwiches. Very different from the norm and it made me feel unlike myself. But now, after thinking about it, I’m still like myself because I’m giving my body the rest it asks for and honoring my cravings. I’m still choosing to respect my body, albeit it in a different manner. That’s still being myself. Huh. What do you know?

I Enjoy Loving Others: With not physically feeling my best, I haven’t had as much energy as I like for playing with Makenzie & Braedon, talking to friends & family, or reading blogs and supporting you all. Who am I?!?! I think this is the biggest way I feel out of sorts. So, my sister is coming over for dinner tonight. Peter and I had an impromptu picnic lunch date with the kids today. I got to chat with a good friend. I’m feeling reconnected already! And it really does help me feel more like me.

I Have Passion and Work Hard At It: I must admit I feel pretty good about the commitment I have given to my blog writing recently and studying for personal training. But it’s also okay to take a little mental break. This exercise helped me realize I have been feeling a little guilty this week for not studying as much. I will let that go riiiigggghhhhtttt….NOW! Gone! 🙂

Acting Humble & Grateful: It’s funny how when I don’t focus so much on “me, me, me” and what I do and what I have, things feel more right with the world. The whole negative mindset of “poor pitiful me” leaves me sinking further and further into a black hole because appreciating life is something I feel so strongly about. Um. Wow. Feeling down and out only makes me feel less and less like myself so I feel even more down and out. What a vicious self-fulfilling prophecy!

photo here only because I stumbled across it somewhere and busted out laughing

Sooooo….this whole “my best self” idea has given me more of a reality check than I bargained for. Good thing I suppose. I feel a tina bit more like myself already. Ha! Sign I’m feeling better = lame-o puns. Anyone else in need of a good slap back to reality? Apparently I do a pretty decent job.

• What is something that makes you your best self?
• How do you snap yourself out of a funk?

I feel fat.

I hate that phrase. I despise it even more when it’s crossing my lips and my thoughts. And I downright loathe it when it happens for an entire day before I even recognize it and have the chance to shake myself from the mindset.

Yesterday I had what many would coin a “fat day”. I had an enjoyable weekend – a shower celebrating a much awaited pregnancy/baby for a dear friend and a couple of relaxing nights with my husband. My enjoyable weekend also included quite a few gems like these…

Peanut Butter Graham Truffles. Cupcakes. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip. Baby shower food. Handfuls of chocolate chips. Unpictured DQ Blizzard.

This is not extremely out of the norm. I readily indulge in a few extra treats practically every weekend. Sometimes, I have extra because of more social events or a surge of cravings. Well, I had a surge of cravings this weekend and rode that sugar wave until I came crashing down Monday morning. It wouldn’t surprise me if that caused the bad headache I suffered all day yesterday.

The headache that, coupled with sore legs, truly debilitated me and left me with an unplanned rest day. That unplanned rest day sent me from my typical “wow-I-ate-a-lot-of-sugar-this-weekend-but-oh-well-it-was-tasty” attitude to an '”ugh-i-feel-fat-i-should-not-have-eaten-xyx” depressing mode. Silly, I know. And it took me all day to realize I had such defeating thoughts going through my head.

As I have discussed before – fat is not a feeling. Something else going on typically costumes itself as the “fat feeling”. When I recognized the fat talk happening, I thought about it and quickly discovered the issues:

• I didn’t feel fat. I simply didn’t feel like myself – energetic, strong, healthy. A standard side effect to the excess sugar I partook. Just body science. NOT something to beat myself up over in the slightest.
• I didn’t feel fat. I simply felt discouraged that I couldn’t fully rest and relax like I knew my body needed…and defeated knowing I would be going the parenting alone all day despite the fatigue and achy head/body.

Once I put my finger on the true matters affecting me, both physically and mentally, I freed myself of that “fat feeling” and gained solace knowing the temporary state of my situation. Seeing my thoughts for what they were helped me to change them and move on. So now I can go about today feeling more back to myself. Fat feeling be damned.

What things trigger the “fat feeling” for you? How do you fight it?