So yes, I’m a mom of four. My body has been through the ringer, 4 times. Definitely, and absolutely worth it. I’m one of those ladies that gains like 40 lbs every pregnancy. After my fourth, I joined my friends in a weight loss challenge. With a lot of hard work and about 2 years of dieting and serious exercising, I lost all of the baby weight, ALL OF IT, and gained muscle. I WAS BACK TO MY PRE-MOM BODY! Wow, I was stoked. It was an amazing feeling to have stuck with it to meet my goal weight. To reward myself, I got rid of my fat mom clothes and started investing in my new collection of clothes. I was able to keep it all off for about a year. Then the scale slowly started to creep back up and the battle began again. Who’s with me here?

So, here I am about 20 lbs over my ideal weight and this is my biggest struggle: the way I see myself is where I have the hardest time enjoying life now, because I don’t enjoy my body now, never really have. But, then I look at what my body helped produce… 4 amazing, talented, loving humans. What else on this earth can do that? Only a woman’s perfectly, imperfect body. So, I found the best way for me to feel good about the way I look is to put effort into my appearance. You may call me shallow, but I don’t do it for you or her or him, I don’t even do it for my husband. I do it for myself. When I look in the mirror and I have my hair done, my makeup is just right, and I have the perfect outfit on, I feel confident and amazing. I still want to lose 20 lbs but at least I can Enjoy Life Now, while I’m working on it. Tennis anyone?