Summer Rules

I always find myself setting goals for myself every summer, and then being disappointed with myself when I don't meet them. It goes something like this:Why do I never learn that my summer is not going to play out like a Coke commercial?
Anyway, since goals are for people with money, free time, some sort of motivation (still trying to figure out what that is and where I can find some), I will instead issue a set of rules for myself that I will try to live by.
1. Henceforth, there will be a moratorium of spending any money at my place of business.
Sorry Anthro, I love you, but you are eating up a disproportionate amount of my income. Yesterday, Marc and I stopped in the St. Vincent De Paul store and I left with an awesome skirt (brand new with tags on) for one dollar. My favorite recent purchases have been from thrifting, and they get me the most compliments too. When your wardrobe is all from the same place, your style just gets boring. Have you ever seen someone's engagement pictures, you know the ones with balloons and suitcases and baked goods and vintage furniture in the middle of a field for some reason, and the girl's outfit is the most twee looking getup you can imagine, and the whole thing is so saccharine and contrived? Her entire outfit is probably from Anthropologie. That's how I feel like I look sometimes. And this is not to bash Anthropologie, or anyone that buys lots of Anthropologie; they have a ton of cute stuff; but it's just to say I have enough, and I need to evolve my style.

2. No body negativity allowed. Not in this blog, not in everyday conversation, not when I'm alone, not ever.

Accepting myself and loving my body is a journey that I've not finished yet, but I've made a lot of progress in the past few weeks. Loving yourself isn't just personal, it's a statement. It's putting up a middle finger to all the voices that are shouting at us that we're not good enough, we're not hot enough, and our bodies are offensive and wrong. Body positivity doesn't just switch on when you decide to change your mind. It's an intention we have to set every day to not take to heart the negativity that bombards us. Sometimes we fail, sometimes we succeed. That's why it's a journey. A lot of ladies I know are trying to lose weight, or have already succeeded in losing weight, and that's awesome. You do you. For me, it's nearly impossible to love my body while I'm counting calories and weighing myself. I even think that our obsession with losing weight makes us less healthy, because rather than focusing on our insides (both physical and mental), we focus on a number. And when that number doesn't go down, we can get discouraged, even though we could have made some real progress in terms of health. So, I will endeavor to eat my fruits and veggies and get all those good phytochemicals and nutrients and all that stuff because it's good for me. But if I want to eat some rad pizza, you can bet I'm going to eat it. I'll keep running at least three times a week because it builds my endurance and fills my brain with good feelings and makes me feel like SuperWoman. But if I want to chill with Marc and watch Office re-runs on the DVR, I'm not going to beat myself up about it.

3. If I spend all day on the internet, I better have something to show for it other than a collection of hilarious cat pictures.

Meaning, if I'm inspired by something and I don't share it, if I'm moved to tears about some sort of injustice in the world and don't try to do something about it, if I'm learning new things everyday from all sorts of people and nobody could tell the difference; then it's time to close my laptop and go DO SOMETHING. Doesn't the look in those cats' eyes just beckon you to action?

So there you have it. There are, of course, more specific things I'd like to do with my summer, but if I shared them I'd go into a list making frenzy that would bore readers and overwhelm me.
So what are you doing this summer? Any plans, goals, or rules? Grab a cold one. Here's to doing stuff.