February Challenge: Love Yourself for Who You Are NOW!

So here we are, friends, in the beginning of February when we're bombarded with images and advertisements promoting Valentine's Day and love, love, love.  All the enticements to go out with your lover to fancy dinners, away for romantic weekends, give and receive fabulous chocolates, pamper your partner with spa treatments, flowers, lingerie, jewelry... the list goes on and on.  But let me ask you this question...

Do you love yourself?

Can you look at yourself in the mirror and love yourself unconditionally?  I know that it has taken me a very long time to get to the place where I can smile back at myself in the mirror and not want to turn off the lights and walk away in disgust. 

And I'm not yet to the point where I can see my extra skin on my belly and not be ashamed of letting myself strrrreeeeeeettttcccch my skin unbelievably out of proportion to the point where it now sags. I know I need to change that "stinking thinking" about myself.  I have to love myself unconditionally before I can turn that love to someone else and love them unconditionally and expect myself to be loved wholly in return. 

The Law of Attraction teaches that where thoughts go, energy flows.  I'm hoping this month's challenge will channel our energies in good, all positive ways to ourselves so that we begin to love ourselves just a little bit more each day.  This month's Healthy Loser Gal challenge is to do things for yourself and to, in return, love yourself for who you are today - just as you are today - minor flaws or what you perceive as major flaws - perfect size 8 body or perfect size 28 body - you are to be loved and to love yourself because you are wonderful... just as you are today! : )

The monthly challenges have, in the past months, always included some sort of fitness and weightloss goals and I hope you will challenge yourself in the weightloss part this month if that is what you're hoping to achieve.  But this month isn't about how much you can lose, it is about how much self-appreciation you can gain! 

February is the shortest month of the year and the challenge will start on Sunday, February 6th.  Please take your calendar and mark off 20 days the you'll commit to exercise or walk or get some sort of fitness in for at least 30 minutes.  You don't have to do 30 minutes at once if you're not able to (I wasn't always able to at one point so I know how hard that can be to truly commit to!)... but do commit to 10 minutes 3x daily for the 20 days of the challenge.  That leaves us with only a couple of free days on the calendar and on those days - once a week for the three remaining weeks of the month - we're going to sit down with pen and paper (or on the pc) and write down reasons we love ourselves

I just heard someone groan, didn't I? *grin*  I would have groaned a few years ago. I was FILLED with self-loathing.  I mean it.  FILLED to the brim with reasons to hate myself.  And then I decided I was worth the time and effort and needed to rediscover the "me" hidden within all that self-hatred.  And I did.  And I know YOU CAN, too!  Be POSITIVE!!

Do you have a job that you're good at?  Then write on your "I love me because:" list:  because I have the skills to do a great job for my company.  Can you make a great, healthy meal for yourself?  Then you have a reason to think you're a creative cook who can prepare healthy food!  Do you have a great smile? Write it down to yourself in your list!  Do you have strong legs that can walk 5 miles a day? Great reason to love you!  How about a body that birthed babies or a mane of hair that people compliment you on?  How about great shopping tricks?  You have a multitude of reasons to write down a list why you should love you!
 

















I know many of my followers and friends don't have a sweetheart that they'll be celebrating Valentine's Day with.  I didn't last year and I still lived to tell the story! ; )  If you're alone on Valentine's Day this year, I want you to know, you're not alone... you don't need to buy into the advertisements and commercials and tweets that say being a twosome is the only way to be!  I've been with someone on Valentine's Day and in a false romance and - let me tell you - THAT is lonely!  This year, if you're alone or if you're with a Valentine, let's all do this one thing - let's love ourselves, because - friends - we're all pretty damn AWESOME!

Happy beginning to the February Love Yourself for Who You Are (#hlgU4U) Challenge!  You're committing to 20 days of fitness and writing yourself a list of reasons to love you once a week during the three weeks of the month remaining!

Thanks for joining in, friends! 
Dream. Believe. Achieve.

Jan/HealthyLoserGal

8 comments:

Need to Get ME Back February 5, 2011 at 9:22 AM  

I love this post! I just got out of a long relationship and was dreading V-Day, but instead I am going to make it a day for myself! I do need to work on loving myself no matter what. It's not good to feel like you don't deserve to love yourself if you are not at your goal weight, that's just rediculous!

Thanks for such a positive post! I'm a new follower and look forward to reading more :)

Anonymous February 5, 2011 at 9:18 PM  

Isn't that the truth. It makes me sad that my mother - all her life, would not buy new clothes because she was trying to lose weight. And now that she's lost 60 lbs and only has about 25 left to go...she still wants to wait until she gets there. Love yourself now. We are worth it.

Mississippi Songbird February 6, 2011 at 9:25 PM  

I just read your article in First magazine. You are an inspiration to me.. I lost my husband right before Thanksgiving, and now I feel more than ever that I have to get healthy. I have to lose weight and love myself.. Thank you for sharing your story..

HealthyLoserGal February 8, 2011 at 3:38 PM  

Big hugs to all three of you for your wonderful comments! We DO deserve to love ourselves and realize we are worth self-love and doing things for ourselves for appreciation! :)
Thank you, Songbird, for your comment which really touched me.

If you all want to grab a February challenge button for your own blogs, be my guest... and always feel free to email me if you want to correspond that way! My email is on the blog's right column... scroll down! :) Let's connect on Twitter, too, if we're not already!

We're going to have a great February together, friends!
Jan / HLG

Shelley February 8, 2011 at 6:01 PM  

I really needed this post and am thankful that I found it! While I have my soulmate this year, it wasn't always that way and to be honest, I still need to remember to LOVE ME! Count me in!!!

Unknown February 9, 2011 at 10:37 AM  

This is a great idea for your Feb challenge, Jan. Even if you are not alone for Valentines Day, the stress of work and children can really make me lose sight of ME. I am worth it and writing down why I love myself will be a great reminder of why I must carve out time for me. One hour a day for me, which I usually spend on the elliptical at the gym, listening to music I like and reading Cosmopolitan or something of my choice. (lately, the Twilight series). Great positive post! Thank you, that set the tone for the month. :)

HealthyLoserGal February 9, 2011 at 10:49 AM  

Yay! Welcome to the challenge Shelley and Kimberly! Here's to us having a loving February filled with gratitude for our own selves! :)

Motivating May 15, 2012 at 11:37 AM  

Thanks for the nice job. I would like to say I am impressed in my first sight here.