Stand up, start small

As I snapped the photo on the left this morning and scanned through multiple other photos to compare it to, I found myself searching for a needle in a haystack. A full body photo of Shawn standing squared up, not hiding behind someone or something is almost no where to be found. In fact besides the one you see here, in my phone, I could find none and even this one, part of me is hiding behind my lovely partner in life. (She has a history of making my bad parts seem at least presentable.) This is the realty for most overweight people. How can I appear smaller, how can I stand back from the photo in such a way that other’s don’t take note of me in the frame. All of us have our insecurities mind you. Some people don’t like their smile, don’t like their eyes, don’t like their nose. We are at times fully consumed with hiding our imperfections and in today’s world, that takes some vigilance with everything ending up online for the world to see. Even if you don’t personally have social media, someone you know does and you could end up in some awkward, fully exposed position, showing your love handles to all humanity.

So why dear reader am I bringing this to world this Friday morning? To tell you that I understand you. I see you. I know at times you don’t feel very beautiful or handsome or toned or thin. You feel icky for lack of a better word. You feel alone in this too, but you aren’t. There are others just like you just trying to square up for a photo again. To allow the world to see the full length of you. I know you have heard this before but take it from somebody just trying to get better every day, you can do this. You still have it in you. You might feel too far gone at this point to even start, but that’s just the lie you tell yourself. So stand up, start small. Take a short walk down the hall and back. Extend that walk tomorrow some steps and begin your journey with me. You got this. It’s not a sprint, it won’t happen overnight but if you start, the results are worth every step.