Let's talk about that,...

Keri and I decided we would make an agreement and we liked it so much that we decided to write it on the marker board on our fridge. The agreement we made I will share with you now, All feelings are valid.

I am absolutely loving this because, since we made this agreement, it makes it so much easier to have conversations about,... well,... everything. This agreement between us provides a safe place to discuss ANYTHING, because all feelings are valid. Doesn't that just make perfect sense? It's so simple and so profound I just have to restate it.

When there is an agreement in place between two people who all feelings are valid it creates a space of trust and safety. We know it is safe to talk about anything and we don't have to be afraid.

I believe the safety I feel in my relationship with Keri has allowed me to explore a side of myself that I had kept locked up deep inside of me for a very long time. I wrote about this in my blog entitled, Girl Water. I wondered a year ago if dipping my toe in the girl water and flirting with being more feminine was being true to myself. I mentioned that, "if it feels this good, it must be true to myself".

Well, here I am a year later still exploring this girlie side of myself and I am LOVING it. I like feeling pretty and it's not just about feeling pretty. It's more about a sense of confidence. A feeling of being true to myself. A feeling of saying what I want and being the me that I want to be. The me that is not afraid of being my whole true self. The me that doesn't really concern herself with what being my whole true self means to anyone else.

Just happy to be the me I love to be.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="720"] Aren't we cute?[/caption]

What gets your ass out of bed?

We were dedicated to it too. We ran in the snow, we ran on Christmas Day and in the summer when it was HOT, in Oklahoma, we would get up at 3 in the morning to beat the heat. We'd run and then come back home, do a shit ton of crunches (I mean like 300, no kidding) and then shower and go back to bed until time to get up for work. We also had a Jane Fonda period (not my fave).

We have continued to evolve and change our eating habits and work out habits. The trick is figuring out how to keep yourself motivated. I have been pretty successful with this game I play with my self, by asking myself a question in the morning that I can say yes to, because if I ask myself, Do you wanna get up and work out, the answer is always going to be NO. Saying NO results in rolling over to hit the snooze button. Who wants to get up an hour earlier than usual and work out? Few people can honestly answer that question with a yes, but how about, Do you wanna fit in your skinny jeans? I say yes to that every fuckin' time. I love the way I feel in my skinny jeans. I feel like walking around and saying look at my butt. The confidence that evokes is what gets my ass out of bed. I still have to play games with myself. It seems like it would get easier and I guess actually it has. We are in the habit of getting up, but we still have our challenges.

We also have an agreement that we don't ask each other if we wanna work out in the morning after the alarm goes off. We say whatever we want in our minds and we get up and put on the work out clothes. It helps a ton to have a work out buddy to help yourself be accountable.

I also think about my work outs and my healthy choices as making investments in my grandma self. The healthier I am today the healthier I will be when my grand kids show up and it feels so good to feel fit.

Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels and flavor fades quickly. Being fit lasts ALL DAY LONG.