Monday, April 12, 2010

The Way We Look in Pictures

I love pictures.  I love taking them.  I love looking at them.  I love what memories they bring back and honestly, I have lots of pictures that bring back lots of amazing memories.

These are all pictures of me.  Picture of me from the past two years where I quickly lost 30 pounds after giving birth to A2 and have been at a standstill ever since.  I have many more pounds to go and am working really hard trying to figure it all out. I judged myself in every single picture (and really, this is just a few).  I look fat.  I have bad hair.  One of my front teeth is a different color than the other.  I also notice in a lot of my pictures that I try to cover myself up somehow.

Ludicrous.

My mom does the same thing.  When we were in Florida last week, my mom did the same thing.  She wanted to look at all of the pictures taken of her right away, and she commented on all of them. And not a single comment was every positive.

It was during that trip that I decided I was not going to do this anymore.  My kids heard my mom.  My kids hear EVERYTHING.  They are kids. That's what they do.  I DO NOT want them to think that making negative comments about yourself, anytime or anywhere, is a good thing.  SO, I've turned a new leaf.

I got a bunch of pictures printed for my parents and to put up in our house.  When I brought them home, I worked to look at every single one and say something positive about it.  It felt great.  I know I have a long way to go.  I can't wait to have spectacular before and after pictures.  But in the meantime, I need to quit putting myself down, all the freaking time, and be positive.  All the little ones in my life, whether my own or the ones I teach, are listening and watching! Not only do I need to be my own superhero, I need to be theirs too!

So here goes with the previously posted pictures:

This photo was taken when A1 was about 22 months and A2 was about 8 weeks.  We were leaving to go to a back to school party with my new co-workers and I was so excited.  I was excited about school, who I was working with, what I was doing....I thought my kids looked incredible and I was in a good mental place that night!  Plus, we are sitting on the front porch of our new house and I am just so proud of everything.

My brother got married in San Francisco in Fall 2008.  We had a blast.  The kids were amazing, my brother and his wife were amazing, and San Francisco was amazing.  We are in front of the Bay Bridge, which was right by our hotel, which by the way, was also amazing.  I was so grateful for this time together as a family.

This is me serving myself at the first Thanksgiving meal we had at our new house.  I prepared it, plated it, and had a blast doing it.  I LOVE cooking Thanksgiving.  I love having my family in my house and celebrating being together.  That's what this picture is about.

This is me and A2 at Christmas at The Drake in Chicago.  We go every year.  She's adorable and this is an adorable picture.  People say we look a lot alike.  She has my husband's eyes and a lot of me.  I love this photo.  Again, it represents family and love.

This is me and Ryan in Santa Fe.  We go a couple of times a year as a family and we love it there.  My parents have a house all tucked into the mountains and it is so peaceful.  This past summer, we had an incredible week there.  Ryan and I have been together almost half our lives (we realized that this weekend). We celebrate our 13 year anniversary this summer! He is so sweet to me and helps me feel beautiful all the time.

This is a picture of me after my first race in several years.  I ran a 5K this fall.  It was a little over 38 minutes, something easy to beat, but I was so incredibly proud of finishing this race - the first of several I have completed since this fall - and hopefully the first of many in the next several years!  This picture is all about pride.  This picture represents me and who I know I really am!

See?  It's not so hard.  I don't look at the pictures and see a bad hair day, ugly shirt, or overweight person.  I am so much more than that.

What about you?  How do you see yourself in pictures?  How SHOULD you see yourself in pictures?

We all have much to be grateful for.  We are all beautiful.  That's what pictures are about!

5 comments:

  1. That was a really beautiful post. I've never been to your blog before - saw it linked by Caitlin from Healthy Tipping Point on twitter and figured I'd see what it's all about. I totally agree with you and think the pictures of you and your family are beautiful!

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  2. Great post! I love the message you are sending. Thank you! When I was looking through the first set of pictures I found myself thinking "wow, she looks really happy and proud! These must be people she loves!"

    I have also never been to your blog before, and followed the link Caitlin from Healthy Tipping Point / Operation Beautiful posted on Twitter!

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  3. This is a fabulous post. I agree with so many of your words posted here, and it's an important message for more people to hear. I posted on my site recently about a self-portrait project that I'm doing this year, kind of following the same ideas.
    http://jillwillrun.com/2010/03/19/self-portrait-project/

    But thank you, for such a great post!

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  4. I too saw Caitlan post this on twitter and I have to agree so much with what you say. I would also like to add that you and your family are gorgeous - such lovely pictures.

    I have 2 small girls and I am so aware of what I say around them, how I talk about food, body image/size health etc. I am doing right by them but I still hang on to the negativity at times myself.

    I often do what you say in terms of editing pictures, immediately criticising them internally, picking out my 'glaring' faults...but I think next time I'm going to take a page from your book and only allow myself to come up with something positive to say.

    Great post.

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  5. You amaze me. Over and over again - you amaze me.

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