Do not read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly!

Haven't gone to the gym yet today, so nothing to blog about there. I posted yesterday's activities yesterday.

Recently, the parental units and I were looking at the pictures from the trip I took to Hawaii with my mom back in April. I sat there criticizing myself in every photo. My stepdad looked at me and told me to cut it out! He said that I should start loving myself instead of beating myself up. He has a point.

I don't know when it started, or what triggered it, but I have become totally critical of myself and my body image.

I did have a boyfriend years ago that would tell me often that I was letting myself go, or I was looking a little chunky that day, but I never thought it would get to me.

It could be magazines and general pictures of women in media, and all the studies that say skinny attractive people do better in life than overweight less attractive people. I am amazed at the pressure that women and men are under to keep a lean physique.

Next time you are out and about, look around you. How many of those people are lean and attractive? I bet you can count them on one hand, and since when was attractiveness measured by body size?

I don't pick my friends based on their bodies, I pick them based on their personalities, and really I never think about the package that my friend comes in, well, unless I am looking for him/her in a crowd!

So maybe I should be less critical of myself and my body image. I am who I am, and I am making positive changes for my health and my body by working out and putting good food in it. So what if I have a blizzard once a week? It's not an extra large, and as my stepdad likes to say, eat right, stay fit and die anyway.

Also with our celebrity focused culture, I think that it gives us unrealistic role models. I wish I didn't have to sit around an office all day to pay the bills and that I could just hire chefs and trainers to get me lean and fit, but I am a real person. I need to work, pay bills, commute, deal with stress, handle family commitments and put time into my marriage.

I don't think TMZ is going to be chasing me around any time soon!

Next time you're looking in the mirror scowling at your reflection, give yourself a break. I know I will.