01 02 03 I'm My Favorite: Back From Vacation and Still Working on Image Issues 04 05 15 16 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 31 32 33

Back From Vacation and Still Working on Image Issues

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I'm back :) Jim and I left bright and early last Wednesday morning for Hollywood, Florida. We went with several other couples from his office. We both had been looking so forward to this trip since it was announced at his office Christmas party last year, especially knowing it would fall so close to our 10 year wedding anniversary.

Here, let me share a few photos:

Westin Diplomat
We were right on the beach and had perfect weather the entire trip.
Getting ready to head to the pool on our first day.

Me and Elaine at dinner.

Headed to dinner on our last night
Taking a nice long walk on the beach back to our hotel.
The vacation was wonderful. We spent most of our time at the pool with the other couples and the rest of the time eating.

I'm up four pounds at this point. I will be able to do some damage to that number this week. I'll be hitting the gym hard and getting right back on the points bandwagon. My biggest challenge will be staying out of the kid's Halloween candy. I know if I have even one piece it will be hard for me to stop from binging on it.

As my blog post title hints at I did have some unexpected image issues to deal with on this vacation. I was really, really excited about how I looked going into the vacation. I even went to Old Navy last week and got some tank tops in size large that were on super clearance.

The first day we were there I put on my swim suit and a cute blue spaghetti strap cotton dress that I got at Old Navy as a cover up and headed down to the pool with Jim to meet up with some friends. I felt awesome. I had a lot of confidence and loved that I was so comfortable. After we had some lunch, Jim and I got in the pool with two other couples. I felt great.

Fast forward to the next day. I ended up taking a nap after Jim and I had lunch and Jim went down to the pool. After I woke up I put on my suit and the blue cotton dress and headed down to the pool with my book and sunscreen. I found Jim and set myself up on one of the beach chairs to start reading. As I was sitting there and Jim introduced me to more and more of the guys from his office and their wives something because very apparent to me. All of the wives were wearing bikinis. Every single one of them. I found my confidence starting to waver. I kept my blue cover up on over my black one piece bathing suit with skirt and I stayed out of the pool. I struggled with these feelings for a few hours and then I realized that I was responsible for how I was feeling. These women that I was meeting were honestly all so sweet and nice and made me feel so welcome to the group. I did not feel judged by them although I was sitting there judging all of them on how they looked. I remembered how I had felt the day before. So proud, so comfortable and I tried to get back to that feeling. I was able to spend the rest of the trip enjoying how far I have come. I did get in the pool and push the negative self-talk out of my head.
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