Pssst! I like Myself! Don't tell!

I originally posted this over on my WW Online blog, where I share loads more (too much, really, sometimes, but that’s the whole point, quite frankly) on my #healthyme journey. And because I have such a spring in my step, and because I think it especially relevant to this style blogging world, and because I think I need to share it over here, I am. And you can tell me, like H does (read on), to get over myself. Go ahead.

I'm nobody, who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's two of us, don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know

How dreary to be somebody
How public, like a frog
to tell your name the livelong day
to an admiring bog.*

- Emily Dickinson

I wrote this post's title first. I was thinking about how lovely it is to like Me. I walk down the street nowadays, a little bit giddy to look at my reflection in the store and office building windows. Today, especially, I like my look. I have my Jason Wu for Target shirtdress on, it shows off my legs, and brown booties that are cut just right, so my slender (always, even 20+ lbs ago, it's a blessing) ankles really, well...

ok, enough of that.

I like myself.

I get excited to get dressed. I get excited to try on clothes. I feel good. Heck, I feel great, and I'm not even done #healthyme yet. In fact, I hope, wish, and pray I’ll never be done.

So that's what I was thinking when I typed the title. Then I popped into the "Write your post here" field, and a little Emily Dickinson came out. This is one of my absolutely favoritist pieces of literature, and has been since I was a child. It was especially pertinent in high school, I think, when I was Nobody. Or at least I felt that way.

Nowadays, I'm somebody. I'm a wife, mother, friend, sister, daughter, colleague, professional...all of those typical roles. I'm also a blogger, and an online presence. I have a small social media addiction, I suppose (even WW online counts, I think). H is always telling me to get over myself. But I get really excited when I get an invitation to an honestly exclusive event, or, [drumroll. seriously, drumroll] I get asked to "host" an in-store shopping event for a national clothing chain. Because some PR person did her homework and actually read my blog, which tells, in part, my #healthyme story. And then she offers clothes. Seriously.

H is proud, but he also reminds me "get over yourself." Regularly.

And then I typed Emily's words. They just came out. Maybe it's my psyche's way of keeping me humble and focused on What's Really Important about all of this: I'm healthy again, and continuing to improve that. I feel better. I like Me better. And I'm changing my life for the better, one bite, one meal, and one workout at a time.

*Ok, you literature geeks, I know I don't have all of Emily's unusual phrasing, capitalization, line breaks, or punctuation correct. And I'm not going to go look it up. At least not until later today, when I dig it out to read it to The Bean again. I'm teaching it to her by heart.