Imagine Today

August 21st – This has been a lot of work so far, so make today a day to celebrate YOU! Indulge yourself with the foods, activities, people, etc. that you love today and simply focus on doing things that make you happy without feeling guilt because you deserve it! How does it feel to celebrate you for a whole day? How can you maintain the feeling in your everyday life (if you want to, that is)?

This was easy because I was at the beach :) I try to do this anyway, on a smaller scale, in my daily life by “rewarding” myself whenever I get through something difficult and allowing myself to indulge in shopping, free time with friends, the foods I love, etc. to a degree. I just try to strike the right balance and never feel guilty about the times I do indulge because I know for every day I spend being lazy theres another one where I am running all over the place, for every less-healthy food I eat I’ve chosen something better for my body, for every shopping trip I take I’ve worked to make money to save and put away, and so on… so long as the balance is there the guilt doesn’t have to be!

August 22nd – Choose a product that you use regularly to alter your appearance (lipstick, hair product, razor, diet pills… whatever) and try going without it for the next week (or however long you feel comfortable) without using that product. During that week pay attention to how you feel without the product, and why you feel that way. This is a good way to really understand how the beauty products we use daily impact our self esteem.”

“Applying make-up, nail polish, shaving legs, and most other sexist, cosmetic double standards are NOT antitheses to being a feminist – the motivation behind the products are. While these products are all derived from the sexist ideal of a “perfect” woman, many women (and men, for that matter) enjoy these items; there’s nothing wrong with that choice. However, there is an inherent problem when there is no choice involved. [People] should be strongly encouraged to consider the motivations behind their habits but not castigated for living them out.” I saved this little snippet of a debate on my laptop awhile back… but I forgot to add a link so I have no idea where it came from (can anyone help me out?) Still, it delivers the exact message I wanted to with this challenge – it’s not about giving up the products that make us feel attractive but, rather, examining the effect these products have on our self-esteem and self concept. In doing so we can examine our motives and make an educated decision about whether or not to continue with the use of these products.

I took this idea on theorietically in my own life a few months ago, in regards to shaving. I don’t feel comfortable enough yet to stop shaving, I’m just going to be honest here. However, what I do feel capable of doing is giving up makeup for the next few weeks. Admittedly I have an off-and-on relationship with makup to begin with, but this should still be a challenge because I am breaking out this week and I’m used to covering up. We’ll see how it goes…

August 17th – Being healthy is important, so take some time today to improve your health through a commitment to movement. Spend some time evaluating your schedule today & thinking about the things you enjoy. Do you like to kayak? Dance? Play soccer? Ultimate Frisbee? Rock climb? Roller-blade? Run? Hula-hoop? How can you work some fun & pressure-free exercise into your daily life? Figure it out at then resolve to give it a shot -  you pick how often, what activities, and so on based on what feels good to you!

I went to a Zumba class with my friend Danielle a few weeks ago in preparation for this one… to see if Zumba was something I’d like to continue regularly, and it is! Zumba is this really cool dance-exercise class, set to modern music, with dance moves that are near impossible for me to do but still super fun :) The best part of the whole experience was definitely the fact that our instructor was wearing pants that had butt tassles on them that spun whenever she did one of the dance moves involving that part of her body (those were some of the moves I really couldn’t do, incidentally.)  The tassles-thing pretty much had me laughing through the whole class, and was great for boosting morale when I got tired. I won’t have the same instructor when I start it up at school, but still, I’m excited!

This summer I’ve also Kayaked as much as I could (which only amounts to twice, admittedly.) If I lived on a lake I would do this everyday though its so much fun!

As part of my effort to exercise a little (at least) every day I’ve found myself wii-hula-hooping and doing crunches a lot more because both are quick and easy so I can achieve my goal, but get on with my day.

Today, however, since I’m at the beach I rode waves in the ocean and rode a bike around town :) so much fun!

Your turn!

August 18th - Keeping with our physical health focus for a little while longer, learn how to cook something new today! Pick a recipe that is both health-conscious and delicious (not “diet food” but, rather, something that contains ingredients that give you vitamins & energy – I’ll be sure to get some recommendations together to get you started) and whip up a meal for yourself or for your family/friends as well!

[I'm @ the beach so I need a rain-check on this one, sorry!]

August 16th – Take a day off [from these activities] to process the first seven days of your journey. Write about your experience, whatever it may be, and continue doing health research if you do desire.

Not much to say here really – just enjoy your reflection day “off” because you’ve all worked really hard & you deserve it. I’ll be answering any e-mails/comments from the past few days tonight, when I return!