Last week a friend told me about an article that spoke about imagining the type of person you wanted to be... how would she act, what would she eat, how would she treat herself? Then the next step was to start acting like that person now, even if you're not all the way "there" yet. Basically, fake it until you make it.
This isn't a new concept, I'd heard it before. But this time it got me thinking about my own self-perceptions versus reality. In the past I've always hidden from pictures and rarely looked at myself in a full length mirror. If I were in a picture with friends the camera would always seem to capture them perfectly but I never looked like myself. At least not like the picture of myself that I had in my head. Because in my mind my stomach doesn't stick out that far, my arms are more defined and my cheeks aren't nearly so chubby. But that darned camera doesn't see it that way. Since we never agree on what I look like I would just avoid the camera so we don't clash.
I used to think this was working for me because then I couldn't get so down on myself for not really looking like I did in my head. But now I see that I was actually getting in the way of making any real changes in my life. Not facing reality has made skipping workouts and making unhealthy food choices easier to accept because in my mind I wasn't really that far gone so making one bad choice wouldn't really hurt. The problem is that making one bad choice made it easier to do it again the next time and before you know it I've skipped a month's worth of workouts and eaten out every day of the week.
So I'm going change my relationship with the camera and start taking progress photos on a monthly basis. I need to start acting like the person I want to be rather than just wishing she'd just miraculously arrive. And the person I want to be doesn't hide from the truth or the camera. She faces reality and if it's not to her liking, rather than hide and wish things were different, she figures out what needs to change and starts changing.
First thing to conquer is the camera ... the next thing will be the snooze button.