7-Day Positivity Challenge

I'm sorry but this is about all I can muster up the mental energy to post right now and it has taken me three days to finish it! As I mentioned last week, Scott and I are going through some VERY stressful times. The most stress either one of us has ever been through, and a different kind of stress. For the first time in probably five years, we didn't have a post on a Sunday or Monday and almost didn't have a post today. Usually, when I'm stressed out or busy I can at least find the energy to come up a recipe or workout to share but I literally just can't right now. Nothing seems fitting and everything, EVERYTHING, is just mentally draining.

If you follow us on Instagram, Snapchat (hesheeatclean), or Facebook you may have seen the picture that we posted from hiking Saturday in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We had different plans but they changed so around 11 AM (we normally leave around 5 AM when going to the Smokies) we left to make the three-hour drive to GSMNP. We hiked 11 miles, climbing to the top of Mt LeConte. The hike took around 5 hours and then we ate at Mellow Mushroom in downtown Gatlinburg and finally made the trek back home, arriving back around 12:30 AM. It was a great mental break and even though we spent more time driving than hiking I'm so glad we decided to go.

Top of Mt LeConte in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

To be honest, this entire year has been really difficult. But this period is more difficult than any body image or any other kind of struggle I've experienced before. Some days it just amplifies those other struggles and some days I'm too exhausted to even think about stuff like that. I know this tone is different from our normal posts but I feel the need to be honest. We're all going to go through trying and stressful times and it's just important to always remember that we have no idea what someone else is going through so always take the high road and be nice. Right now I would give anything to just have body image struggles be my issue of the moment. Anyway, I'm hoping that by sharing these inspirational quotes they will help you if you are going through a tough time and also help myself try to remain positive.

So, how does the challenge work?

1. Join us on Instagram (heandsheeatclean) and/or Facebook (@heandsheeatclean). We will be posting a positive quote each day. I'm still working on my favorite quotes but it will be a mixture of body image and just general life quotes. :)
2. Share your own! Tag us and use the hashtag #heandsheeatclean so we can find it!
3. Come back here at the end to see each one we've posted (I will try to add then to this post each day!).

That's it! We are just trying to add a little joy to your day and ours!

Below are all of the positive quotes we shared across our social media channels. We shared these on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. When you are struggling, come back and look at these for a little inspiration!

Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3:

Day 4: "Yesterday ended last night. Today is a brand-new day." - Zig Ziglar

Day 5: "I truly believe that everything that we do and everyone that we meet is put in our path for a purpose. There are no accidents; we're all teachers - if we're willing to pay attention to the lessons we learn, trust our positive instincts and not be afraid to take risks or wait for some miracle to come knocking at our door." - Marla Gibb

Day 6:

Day 7: “A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Build Up Your Confidence With Positive Thinking

After posting yesterday I honestly avoided looking at it because I was afraid I would decide to delete it but I am so glad that I didn't. Hours after pressing "publish" I came back and read every single comment. I was blown away. I am so glad that the post helped so many people or at least opened some eyes. It was SO difficult to put everything out there for the whole world to see but I knew it had to be done.

Life is WAY too short to live like this and I've decided that I'm NOT going to live like this anymore. After reading some of the comments, I actually feel lucky that I haven't had these issues longer than I have. I feel like it's a prison but I vow to escape it now and I want to take as many of you with me as possible. I CANNOT continue down this road.

I PLEAD with you to join me, especially if you are a mother. It is so important that we end these body image issues now. All of this negative self talk does NO GOOD. Absolutely NO GOOD. I realized last year that the scale did no good and I got rid of it (read this post) so I KNOW I can do the same with this negative self talk. We would NEVER talk to someone else the way we talk to ourselves so why do we still do it?

I immediately found and read my article from Oxygen Magazine (June 2013 issue). I am so shocked about some of the things that I wrote about in there.

"Whitney hoped that her personal language would spark her confidence, igniting a sense of self-assurance that would drive her to a bold, determined approach in the gym. Whitney's one-on-one positivity pep talks helped to build up her self-esteem, and to permanently shape her into a women who sees the glass as half full. 'I had to learn how to twist my negatives into positives'".

They even quoted me as saying "I realized that when you hear something enough, you start to believe it. When I started to think of myself differently, I truly started to change my life."

So, now the question to myself is HOW do I get that back? How do I get that positive attitude back? I'm going to start with these 5 things and I would love for you to do these with me!

1. Say at least one nice thing about yourself each morning. Bonus points for actually TALKING to yourself in the mirror. It doesn't even have to do with looks. It can be something positive from work, your personal life, or just that you made healthy choices the day before.
2. Avoid judging or critiquing others. When we judge others it really does say a lot about ourselves - more than it says about the other person. We are in NO place to judge anyone.
3. Avoid social media accounts that are based solely on appearance. Honestly these are easy to spot by how many "selfies" they take. These accounts MIGHT give you a little motivation at first but over time it will drain you.
4. Do not talk negatively about yourself. Definitely avoid doing so in front of your spouse and/or children.
5. Stop comparing yourself to others. You are YOU. This is the only life and body you have. Live your own life.

I KNOW that we can do this together. Let's get started with what I've listed here but - get -ready - there's lots more to come!

P.S. I would love for you to join our FREE Healthy Living Challenge on Facebook because we plan on tackling some of these together (just fill out the form in the post linked above)!

- Whitney