Don't Stop Believing

Did you know that trying to karate chop a mosquito doesn't really work? It just makes you look like a really bad dancer trying to do the robot while moving to the tunes in your own head. Truth.

This is a two for one post...... Double your pleasure, double your fun!

A link up with Rachele over at The Nearsighted Owl for her I Am Proud of My Size link up.

And a pledge to myself.

Amy over at Vanagon Champion is hosting a week of posts dedicated to a Summer of Self Love which is a series that couldn't have come at a better time. 

Source

I had meant to write about this earlier in the week, but then chores around the house, random errands and a good book kept me away from putting together a post. But then yesterdays random meltdown happened, which I have thought about and thought about and thought about. And then I thought about it some more. 

And then I tried to write about what I thought about. Didn't go so well. 

Why? Because there are days like yesterday when I feel like a broken record. I've been to this place before (that awesomely annoying town of self-doubt) and I've written about it before and I've made the promise to myself that this it, I am done with the negative thinking and worrying about what other people think and yadda yadda yadda. 

And then I came to the following conclusion:

It's all o.k. 

I am a work in progress. I am going to stumble along the way. I'm going to have days when I don't believe any of it. There are going to be days when I look in the mirror and roll my eyes at the woman standing in front of me. I will always be working to silence the voices from my past telling what bits of myself I need to change. I will always be correcting people when they assume I started running because I want to "get skinny" or to reach some phantom weight loss goal. I will always be working towards loving every last (lumpy) bit of myself. But as long as keep working towards it, then I'm making progress. 

And this summer I will continue to make progress as I'm making the following pledge to myself:

I swear to have the best summer of my life filled with the most radical body confidence I've ever known. I pledge to: 

• Tune out pressure to fit into a certain body shape and size. Accept my body wholly and unconditionally as it looks now. 
• Wear whatever I want to wear this summer and not think twice. 
• Say yes to summer activities, like swimming and the beach, even if I don't feel great in my bathing suit. I DESERVE TO HAVE FUN, and I will change my way of thinking about my body. 
• Stop any negative body talk I hear around me, including in my own head. 
• Most of all, I pledge to live in the present, do what makes me happy, and live it up with the one body I have.

                          Dress: Old Navy                                                                      The "I Hate Mosquitoes Dance"

                          Cardigan: Gift from my mom