Mirror Mirror

Facebook. Often thought of a big time waster and not great for the procrastinators in us, it is marketed as a networking community!

I’m surprised but I will admit that Facebook actually taught me something about myself today. I learned something from one of their ”applications”. It came through “Social Me” (from what I can figure out is a dating opportunity for the singletons out there). I have a friend who actually met someone through this applications.

I found this video which sums up the type of impact Facebook is having on many people, have a look.

[youtube rSnXE2791yg nolink]

Now, let me explain how this Social Me application works.

Facebook Application Social Me

Social Me is an application or as described, an “interactive and addictive game” where your photo(s) from your Facebook profile is posted and people can characterize what they see in the picture, and even send a message to the person you are interested. Some of the choices are pretty, nice, sexy smile, nerdy, hot, kissable lips, etc. The reason I chose to have this application was because I’m literally plagued by email requests from my Facebook friends to use the applications so they can access the results of their profile pictures and I wanted to support them. You know who you who you are!

Even though I am not looking for someone, I was curious enough to see what the application revealed. Anyone who would tell you otherwise wouldn’t be telling the truth. Today I decided to scroll through and see how the public sees me. I was waiting for the word fat to come up on the panel. Instead I saw words like pretty, nice, happy, smart, pretty eyes and even the word nerd.

I then thought about how I perceived myself and how others perceived me. Something as simple as wearing a pair of glasses, used to improve your eyesight, immediately sent out the connection to others the characteristics of nerd or smart. People had preconceived notions of what I was like (the characterization of nerd) and even I had decided how I perceive myself.

Part of any body transformation involves changes within your psyche and I consider this to be a part of my continuing journey.

One characteristic of who you are isn’t your entire being! As an overweight woman I openly admit that this is something I battle with at least weekly because there is a mental shift happening inside of me and I am battling with what |I believe to be the old me. Why do we discount our entire person because of our opportunity(s). We are always so quick to highlight what we believe are the negative about our physical bodies. This might explain how the sales of cellulite creams, wrinkle creams and plastic surgery has become the norm in today’s society.

My journey is not an easy one and as Rob reminded me the other day, I have a long way to go. I recently spoke to him about my frustration about not losing weight fast enough even though my body has been visibly changing and I am the healthiest I have been in my adult life! I then began to compare myself to the others on his program who were having amazing results and releasing pounds of fat. Darlene reminded me that I was doing a dis service to myself by comparing my body to others. My body is exclusive to myself and I am not a duplicate of anyone.

Weight loss and exercise for me is not about a hard body. For me it is about healthy and being comfortable in my body. People choose to lose weight and/or exercise for different reasons. I can only speak for myself.

Look in the mirror and tell me what you see? Do you quickly point to what you perceive as less then perfect skin, weight, teeth, wrinkles, age spots or are you happy enough to proclaim what you do love about yourself?

My challenge: My challenge to you this week is to post as a reply to this blog what you are happiest about when you look into the mirror. Remember, the word BUT cannot be included in your reply. I love my… but…

I look forward to your replies. Have a great week~!

** As a side note, I tagged all the profiles I read as having a nice hairstyle. My apologies to all of those who are bald. Its my sense of humour!