Morning,
Yesterday’s Kendo class was beyond superb!
True, alas, the person who flattened me last week didn’t bring his armor, but hey. That’s okay; I was able to spar against other extremely talented folks as well. And also true, alas, I was rather, ahem, not exactly skillful….but! I was able to lose myself a bit and counter a good number of strikes that came down on my head.
In other words, I did ‘way better than last week!
This morning, I awakened to a beautifully tinted bruise on my side. The colors are most engaging! 
And my first thought upon spying it was….pride. Not so much, pride that I’m black and blue, but pride that I’m in good enough condition that I can throw myself wholeheartedly into a young person’s sport…and make it my own.
This is a super side-benefit to losing weight! I’m so self-confident now that I adore pitting myself against challenges that would have left me whimpering last year.
You know, you can hear until the cows come home how wonderful it is to get healthy and lose weight….but until you actually witness the magic and see it manifest itself in your reflection, you just have no idea how truly superb this realization can be!
Which brings me to the point of this post. Losing weight and getting healthy isn’t only about being thin. No sirree! It’s also about letting out the inner you – that self-confident person whose courage has been stilted by that little voice of shame and fear. There’s even a discussion going on about that very topic here.
What do you think?
Best wishes,
Barbara
ps – One of my favorite treatments for muscle pains are below!