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Disclaimer
Beverley has prepared the content of Bev's World irresponsibly and carelessly. She therefore disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, originality or completeness of the drivel presented on this blog or on other linked websites or on any subsequent links. She vehemently denies that the information may be relied upon for any reason. Beverley shall not be liable for inflicting laughter, shame, disgust, torrents of tears and the eventual desiccation or crashing boredom on readers.

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Tuesday 29 November 2016

"I look like me" so important to accept that fact!



29th November 2016
A comfort zone is a beautiful place, put nothing ever grows there.

I made my Facebook live video debut yesterday!   I'd agreed to do a cook-a-long with Bonnie and anyone else who wanted to join in and I was asked on Saturday if I'd be recording it live, that I hadn't considered.  My thoughts on live stream have always been do I really want my behaviour recording and keeping, do I want to see what I look like when I'm doing what I do in a meeting really, the answer was probably not, then I realised that this is the version of me that hundreds of people see week in, week out and they seem to be okay with me so why not.  It seemed to go down well, I cooked chicken jalfrezi from the new Weight Watchers One Pot cook book (it tastes better when left to stand and the flavours come out more, so maybe make it a day ahead) and once I'd got used to how it works, this 'live' thing, we had a giggle, I could read my members comments and we all got to spend half hour or so with each other (albeit virtual) which we wouldn't normally do, loved  it.   However today's blog isn't about me, I've got me a guest blogger, one of my members actually, so I'll hand it over (I'm not sure if I was supposed to name them or it's anonymous, so I'll leave the name out for now)...


Guest Blogger

What do you see?


Take a look at the picture. What do you see?
Do you see a haggard old woman with a hook nose?  Some of you will see her straightaway but some of you won’t. Some of you might see a pretty young woman looking into the distance with her cute button nose. But some of you won’t.

For me this picture sums up how we might feel about how others see us.  What do you think other people see when they look at you? If you asked them (and they told you honestly) what do you think they would say? Are we ever brave enough to ask? Perhaps we should? We might be pleasantly surprised.

Some of us are on our Weight Watcher journey because we want to improve our health, our happiness but many of us want to improve the way we look too. How many family photographs do you have with you in it? Or like me are there a whole decade of pictures with you behind the camera because you couldn’t bear the thought of looking a picture of yourself?

Recently I found a beautiful photograph of my family with me in it that I had hidden away behind the sideboard for 13 years all because I could not bear to look at myself in that picture. I feel so sad now because when we found it the other day my husband said immediately ‘just look at you, how happy you looked then!’. That is what he saw, my happiness in that moment; he didn’t see the double chins or surplus pounds.
Weight Watchers is all about ‘Eat, Smile’ Move’ and often Bev reminds us to focus on ‘our happy’ and tells us we are all ‘BeYOUtiful’.  Wise words. Sometimes people find it really hard to love themselves and see their beauty, their sparkle, the radiance that others see in us. I guess they call it ‘self-esteem’

I would love to look like Elle McPhearson, Halle Berry, Jennifer Aniston or whoever the current definition of beautiful is. But I don’t. I look like me. People remember me by how I treat them, not how I look. I have learned it doesn’t matter a jot if when you look at me you see a haggard old woman or the pretty young girl. I am me.

I am learning to love what I see in the mirror and in those photographs. The weight loss is helping but I have learned to see the happy in the picture and not the shape of my body. I will always remember what happened in the picture; who I was with; where I was, not what my weight was.

This last week has been a painful reminder about how precious life is. Two friends diagnosed with cancer at a young age, one of my old school friends died and a former colleague had her life taken tragically last week. Life is so much more than what we look like and what we weigh isn’t it? Weight Watchers tell us this all the time – but how often do we forget the Smile of Eat, Smile, and Move? What have we got to be grateful for? What can make us smile this week? If the answer is losing 10lbs, dream on and think again!



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