Wellness Wednesday- Self Love- Guest Post

Hello! For today's installment of Wellness Wednesday I have a guest post. Often times people who are not in relationships start to feel some type of way so this is a post about self love, and giving your self butterflies!!!

Hey readers of Kismet and Kilograms I am Alexandria Walker from Hughes, AR and I blog over at Almost Unfiltered at 30. I've been running for about four years now. I'm currently in the process of becoming a certified running coach! What I plan to do with this certification is still in the planning stages but it will be awesome! I will run my first marathon in 2015... My first time announcing that! Running is my sanity! When I'm tired I run. Stressed! I run! Upset! I run. Running is my go to... Favorite running quote: "Want to change your body, exercise. Want to change your life, run!"

Self-Love…Do you get butterflies from your reflection?

For many of us, love has different meanings but the ultimate concept is the same.  Someone that makes you feel good by caring for you in many ways i.e. emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually.  Have you ever met someone, fallen in love and the mere sight of them give you butterflies?  Now, have you ever looked in the mirror, fallen in love, and the mere sight of YOU gives you butterflies.  My point is it is easy for us to love others but we often have a hard time loving ourselves.  When I say love I mean truly loving ourselves.  Taking time out to make ourselves feel good, look good, and caring for us emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually.

When I look in the mirror I really get butterflies.  I know the girl that I used to be and the woman that I’ve become.  Let’s take a moment to focus on physical care.  Taking time out to care of your physical being is very important in self-love.  I tell my family and friends that healthy friends are fun friends.  I don’t mean it to be condescending so let me elaborate.  How much fun can you have with your family and friends if they plagued with ailments.  This hurts! That hurts! I feel like this or that! It is our responsibility to take care of ourselves.  Be in the best shape for you… My go to physical activity is running.  Running helped me to get to loving myself… Truly loving myself.  I was the skinniest out of shape person ever.  Now, I’m in the best shape.  When I see my reflection in the mirror now I get butterflies just the way I get butterflies when I see him.  I want the best for me just like I want the best for him.  The best for me means taking care of me.  Loving me.  

My love for running will not be the next person’s love.  Find what physical activity that you enjoy and do it.  Be physically fit… Get butterflies when you see your reflection in the mirror.  Physical characteristics are not enough alone to make us love ourselves but it is a great place to start.  Make a commitment to yourself, family and friends to love yourself enough to work hard at becoming healthier through physical activity.

If you want to connect with me more you can find me in the Facebook group I AM HER (women only sorry fellas), on Instagram, or on Twitter.

Wellness Wednesday- Sacrificing Comfort for Change

Remember when I started Wellness Wednesday? With the new year approaching one of my goals is to be more consistent with that. Since we all like to set goals for the new year I thought this guest post  from a great friend of mine Keana would be perfect. Please enjoy!

Hey! I’m Keana Nwaneri and I’m the creator and editor of Starting the Conversation Blog. I’m a graduate, Clinical Mental Health Counseling student with a passion for mental health and total wellness. I’m originally from St. Louis, MO but currently reside in Nashville, TN

Sacrificing Comfort For Change

In the counseling world, we use the transtheoretical model or Stages of Change model to assess how “ready” and/or committed a client is, to changing a particular behavior.

With New Year’s right around the corner and everyone on social media sharing what they want to change this year, I thought I’d share a few tips on creating long-lasting change.

One of my favorite people once told me “it’s not about how much you want to loose weight, it’s about how willing you are to give up eating cheeseburgers.” I laughed because for some reason, that was hilarious to me but afterwards, I thought long and hard about that statement. It really resonated with me. Although he wasn’t talking about me when he made that statement, in a lot of ways, I was able to apply that to my own life and the things that I wanted to change but just couldn’t find the motivation to.

The Stages of Change Model explained

The first stage of change is the precontemplation stage. In this stage, you may not even realize that there is a problem, or you may simply not be ready or willing to fix it.

The next stage of change is the contemplation stage. At this stage, you’ve admitted that there is a problem and are considering initiating change.

Next is the preparation stage. Here, you’re deciding that you want to change and preparing for action.

The next stage is the action stage. Here you are actively engaged in the process and taking the steps necessary to initiate behavior change.

Lastly, there is the maintenance stage. Here, you work to maintain the change(s) you have made.

While the stages are pretty straight forward, an important note to remember is that each person works through these stages at their own pace and unfortunately, it’s not always in this exact order. Change can be difficult, scary or just plain old uncomfortable but know that that’s to be expected. Don't let these feeling deter you from your ultimate goal or behavior change.

Being Honest with Yourself

If you find that your New Year’s Resolutions aren’t happening as fast as you would like, just take a step back, breath and be patient with yourself. However, if you find that you are making little to no progress after long periods of time, you may want to reassess your goal(s). Ask yourself:

1) Why is this goal / behavior change (BC) important to me? What does it represent, if anything?
2) How will this goal / BC improve your life?
3) Is this the only way I can go about achieving my goal / BC?
4) What will it take for me to achieve this goal /BC?
5) How willing am I to commit myself to doing what it will take to achieve this goal / BC?

After answering these questions, you should have a better idea of what it really is that you are wanting and how serious you are about doing, or not doing, what is necessary to make it happen. Because while having goals and wanting to change a behavior may sound like a great idea, you have to do the work for them to materialize, and unfortunately, there is no shortcut to success.

Ok guys if you would like to connect more with Keana you can read her BLOG and follow her other social media accounts below.

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Filing insurance Claims- Wellness Wednesday

Hello all for this edition of Wellness Wednesday I have a guest post from Ms. Hannah Taylor. She contacted me and wanted to inform my lovely readers of her services. The information in this post is hers I hope that you find it helpful......

Filing an insurance claim, be it health, car, home insurance, or workers comp, is exhausting and no doubt a daunting task especially for those who have never done it before. Most people are intimidated to do so not only because of utter lack of information, but just the amount of work - tons of paperwork, a lot of going back and forth with different people, long frustrating hours on the phone - will just about send anyone running for the hills. Well, it shouldn't be like that. If you have all the necessary information to back you up and if you know the correct person to talk to, then it wouldn’t be as complicated as it needs to be. Myclaimsource.com is an open resource for consumers looking for information on how to file a claim. You will find insurance providers’ contact information - phone, email address, mailing address, and website address listed on the site, tips and tricks, even discounts certain providers offer. The site also aims to be an open forum to connect those looking to file claims with people who already have, and who may be able to offer tips and advice on claim filing with a given provider. Drop by anytime and find the information you need on filing a claim. Hopefully, http://www.myclaimsource.com will be able to help individuals make an informed decision and make the no-fun task of filing insurance claims a little easier.

Guest Post from Veronica!!!!!

Hey everyone!!! As you know Im super busy so I have left my blog in the very capable hands of my bloggy bestie Ms. V. She is super amazing and like most of us she is on that weight loss journey!!!

 

 

Hi everyone. My name is Veronica. I reside at V Watts Thoughts  My bloggy bff, Toya, invited me to do a guest post and I was all too excited to do so. If you all have followed Toya for a while, the last time I did a guest post I spoke about my spiraling downward journey through bulimia and my upturn to recovery.

Today, I’d like to talk about getting out of the “FAT GIRL FUNK”. You know what I’m talking about. It’s that mentality that you look too fat, you feel too fat, the 5lbs you lost is a drop in the bucket compared to how much you have to lose, the “oh, I’ve already eaten a candy bar today might as well chunk the rest of the day out and eat like a pig”. 

A lot of us have been there and maybe still are there. I know that for me it has been a difficult journey to get out of that mind set. As I sit here and type this blog I am a full size 16 weighing 184lbs. I can honestly tell you that I feel better about myself today than I EVERRRR EVER EVA had felt about myself when I was 138lbs during the bulimia. See, the thing is that you can reach your goals of weight loss or size or activity level but if you don’t ditch the fat girl funk then you will never be happy with any of it. I’ve been through this vicious cycle of wanting to lose weight, losing some weight, but it’s not enough so I get angry and disappointed with myself so I say screw it and I gain it all back.

It wasn’t until I learned to be positive about myself, love myself for reasons other than my weight, and give over my health (efforts) to the Lord that I began to see real results. To date, I’ve lost 36lbs. I’ve gotten back into running and I feel on top of the world. I’ve been actively trying to get healthy for the last 8 months. This is huge for me because right around 3 months ago I would have rode a rollercoaster of TRY-fail-TRY-fail and hate every moment of it. What I have discovered while losing weight this time around is that in being less stringent and critical of myself I’ve seen that it has made this process a much more pleasant one. I learned to forgive myself for “mistakes” I made with my nutrition. When I quite the nagging and self-shaming it stopped me from continuing the binge cycle.

When you focus on your mistakes you tend to continue on that path of self destruction. I also truly try to celebrate every little improvement I make. Did I lose a pound in a week? AWESOME!!! No, it wasn’t as fan-flippin-tastic as losing 5 or 10lbs but it is progress and I feel like I should acknowledge that. When I began to celebrate my little successes they no longer seemed little to me. There is a saying, “fake it til you make”. I faked being as excited about pants that were a smidge less tight until I began to really appreciate that they weren’t tight anymore. As I said I am sitting here at 184lbs and feeling fabulous about myself. Yes, I’d love to lose more weight and be in better shape but I know that will come with time. I’ve got to love the me I am now before I think I love any form of my future self.

Let go of the past, look towards the future, be kind to yourself, and get outta that fat girl funk!

Guest post

My first guest post Woot Woot!!!!.....Hey yall Im not here today! Im over at MEET THE BROWNS blogging about Sex....Some of my more conservative readers this post may not be for you. Everyone else go check it out!!!