Bad Habits
I hate writing posts like this. I really do.
Posts where I have to admit to messing up.
And then I remind myself that being real > being perfect.
Real (read: makes weird faces).
That being said, I feel I should be honest and admit two things.
A) I’m bad at listening to my body.
B) I’m a negative self-talker.
Bleh, cue feelings of disappointment.
Listening to My Body:
I go around preaching about “listening to your body” and totally shocked myself the other day when I realized I myself, don’t always do so.
Shame on me.
This is iced coffee. We don’t always get along.
Drinking caffeine on an empty stomach does bad things to me. I feel spun out, dizzy, nauseous and feel like my thoughts are going a mile a minute.
So why I thought iced coffee was a good refreshment after a mid-day outdoor (read: hot!) cross-training session is beyond me.
For the record, I totally blame this iced coffee and not these sugar-laden pieces of marble pound cake and pumpkin loaf.
Baked goods may not be the most nutritious snack but they are damn tasty!
I proceeded to go to Bed, Bath and Beyond afterwards to look at apartment furnishings and ended up rushing out because I felt sick and lightheaded.
Moral of the story: I need to take better care of myself. A hot walk/run followed by a drink I know makes me feel sick and a snack that is more likely to satisfy my sweet tooth than my hunger is not okay.
Seriously, I never want to feel like I did that afternoon again. I immediately went home and ate some real food. Then dumped the rest of the iced coffee down the sink.
Lesson learned.
Negative Self Talk:
While I feel like I’ve really grown to love my body and have about 10x as much confidence as I used to have in the past, I recently realized one bad habit I’ve yet to grow out of is participating in negative self talk.
You know, the whole “Ew, these pants make me look…” I won’t even say the word.
I think this is something most people do, whether they are overweight or not and it’s truly sad.
So enough is enough. My body is awesome and I’ve made a conscious decision not to talk badly about it anymore.
Hold me to it. Joey already promises he will, too.
I can’t promise to be perfect, but I can promise to try to make changes.
***********************************
Are you good at listening to your body?
Are you a negative self-talker? If so, feel free to join me on this body-loving journey 🙂
Lauren Loves Good Food 
Ah, I am familiar with negative self talk…with both my body and with my capabilities as a person. It’s especially hard to talk yourself up (I’m finding) during the job hunting process — esp. after rejection after rejection. I’m trying to get used to it!
I find it definitely nice to surround yourself with people who believe in you and can validate your good qualities. Of course there will always be those who doubt you, but just don’t pay att. to them 🙂
Totally agree about surrounding yourself with people who believe in you 🙂
Too bad “listening to your body” isn’t an exact science! It sounds like you are “hearing” some of what your body is telling you, though! (Else you wouldn’t have realized that iced coffee = a cold and refreshing incantation of the devil!)
When I’m confronted with my own imperfections–whether not listening to my body’s cues or engaging in negative self talk–I just go back to trust: trusting that my body is much smarter than my brain, and trust that I have the ability and confidence to listen to it and to keep going in the right direction.
Luckily the right direction also = the yummy direction!
don’t beat yourself up – we’ve all been there! i’ve certainly learned the “too much caffeine” the hard way, too! i love a good iced coffee but KNOW that if I have more than 2-3 cups a day, or drink it on an empty stomach, I’ll feel just like you described. And gosh darn it, why is negative self talk so easy? No more!
I’m glad it’s not just me on the coffee thing!
I’m with you on the negative self talk. It’s so hard not to sometimes.
It really is 😦 but it makes me so sad when I see other people do it to themselves so I shouldn’t do it to myself either!
No one is perfect but that’s what makes us all unique 🙂 I am loving that marble cake, how yummy 😀
I am loving that marble cake a little too much lately 😛
Being real is definitely better than being perfect. We all mess up. Even though I’ve come so far in terms of listening to my body and doing what’s right for it, I still make mistakes and eat things that I know will hurt me, or underestimate how much I need to eat. And negative self-talk is something I’ve been working on stopping too. The thoughts still come every now and then, but I’ve been making more of an effort to fire back with positive ones and it seems to be helping… even though sometimes I feel goofy talking to myself lol.
I have definitely yelled at myself out loud a couple times lately.
Negative self talk be gone! ha it happens to all of us. I’m just happy that you are admitting it and doing your best to fight the negative thoughts. So YOU can be happy 🙂
Be gone is right!
I agree, it happens to all of us at some point. Just knowing that everyone does it at some point should be a comfort! (And to those who don’t… I hate you. Just kidding 🙂 )
I get the same way when I have coffee on an empty stomach. I get jittery, anxious, and my thoughts go wild! Not a good feeling, but you live and you learn right?
Right! I know exactly what you mean about your thoughts going wild. NO more!
I am striving to listen to my body more. It can be hard, but I know that I feel better when I do. And Negative self talk — it happens to everyone. One thing I do to counteract it is to replace every negative thought with three positive ones, like instead of “my thighs are so huge,” I’ll say “I like my eyes,” “I like my smile,” “I like my hair.” It really gets me back in the right mood.
And reading helpful comments like that gets me in a better mood 🙂 Thanks, Kat!
Kinda a tricky question. It depends what kind of mood I am in when listening to my body sometimes. Usually I am pretty good at it 🙂
Good for you, girl!
UGH I do that negative self talk thing a few times a month.. usually when I’m getting ready to go out and I feel like I hate all my clothes and they all look awful. Danny has watched me scramble around our room trying on everything I own while I shout about how f****** f*t I am. Lovely. I’ll remember this post next time. You are perfect, I am perfect, we have hot rockin bods! DUH! xo Jamie
Um yeah, there have been quite a few of those breakdowns over here too. We’re both crazy because there’s no need for such negativity. We’re smokin’ 😛
You’re amazing – if you’re anything like me, I’m sure you have a hard time admitting when you mess up or you’re wrong. I have negative talk days, but I try to hold myself accountable to NOT doing that very often!
What? I’m never wrong! Okay, okay I am. A lot actually. I’m trying to be better about all of my bad habits, namely negative talk, needing things to be my way and admitting when I’m wrong.
As hard as it is to admit, I have recently succumbed to the negative words in my head too…I messed up the other day and waiting WAAAAAY to long to eat lunch and then ended up OVEReating when I did sit down to a meal…which made me feel like a fa….yeah… 😦 Why is it so easy to allow those words into our thoughts? I’m definitely in on getting those thoughts as far away from me as possible!!