This post is sponsored by United Healthcare. All opinions are my own.
The Selfie — The art of taking a picture of oneself.
An art mastered by all three of my daughters, my 8 year old included.
An art I begrudgingly adopted when I became a Sweatpink ambassador this past summer.
An art I’ve come to appreciate as a powerful tool in meeting my health and fitness goals.
What is a Sweatpink Ambassador you might ask? Sweatpink is a community of fitness bloggers who are every day women like you and me committed to living a healthy lifestyle and sharing our passion with others. We accomplish this through our blogs and social media channels. I was honored to be selected as an ambassador last July and promptly began sharing a lot more of my daily habits via selfies and other photos across my social media channels.
What I discovered in the process is how valuable a tool these selfies can be. Not only was I inspiring others in being completely transparent about my habits, my good days and not so good days, I also started feeling empowered by the changes I was seeing in my photos.
As you know, this past year was a challenging year for our family, and though I did my best to eat healthy and make time for exercise as often as possible I was mostly in survival mode. I took care of myself so I could be present to my family and handle the craziness but my primary focus was on them. I stayed healthy but my fitness level and stamina took a toll.
Then July came along and I suddenly came back to life when I attended Blogfest and the IDEA World conference. For 4 days I was surrounded by women all passionate about health and fitness, attending blogging workshops and many fitness master classes… and, yes, I took a lot of selfies! I have to be honest, I was not too thrilled with what I saw. The reality of my year of greatly diminished activity was staring me in the face… I had felt it too, during the classes, but I am strong willed and was so excited to be challenging myself again that I pushed hard in every single class. It felt Ah-Ma-Zing! The spark started a burning fire and by mid September I was back in the gym five to six days a week, with my new training partner, Christiana Greene.
Christiana is a fellow Sweatpink ambassador so we’ve had a lot of fun sweating it out together, taking photos of our various feats and sharing them on social media. It felt a little weird and self centered at first but I got over that fairly quickly thanks to the awesome feedback I started getting right away.
By far the most amazing thing for me was to SEE my own transformation! I committed to training to regain my stamina and strength and with that my energy and focus. I gained all of these but what blew me away was how quickly I started seeing changes in my body… I can’t tell you how many times I wished I had taken a “before” picture so I could compare it to an “after” picture. Physical change was not my main focus but I’d be lying if I told you I don’t LOVE the changes I see! And yes, that it the power of the “healthy selfie”. In posting my workout photos day after day, week after week, I’ve publicly charted my transformation. It’s exciting and rewarding and so empowering! I love to see definition, tone, and a sliming down of my frame. It feels awesome!
With the New Year right around the corner and many of you setting health and fitness goals here are 3 ways in which the Selfie can become a powerful tool in reaching your goals:
The Selfie Provides Accountability
We all know that accountability plays a huge role when it comes to sticking to our health and fitness goals. What better way to stay accountable than to post your sweaty selfies? Yep embrace those sweaty moments. No make up needed, just that beautiful post workout glow that says “I love my body and treat it with love and respect.” 🙂 I post these regularly on my Instagram and never cease to be amazed how many people find them inspiring. Are you ready to inspire others while you stick to your healthy lifestyle?
The Selfie Provides Important Feedback
The selfie provides much needed feedback in more ways than one. One of the wonderful things about having a workout partner is that she can take photos for me so I can focus on executing the exercise. Okay so that’s not technically a selfie but it’s an invaluable tool. I can see right away what my posture is and whether I need to make adjustments or not.
And of course I can see my transformation… Muscles gaining more definition… Stomach flattening ( “Do I really have a six pack?”)… Butt tightening … Yep I like what I see 😉
The Selfie Provides Many Reasons to Celebrate!
We women have a tendency to focus on all of our imperfections and tear ourselves apart… STOP! Love yourself and love your selfies.. Celebrate every workout just because you stuck it out and made it through no matter how tired you felt. Admire the changes you are creating! Yes go ahead and love on yourself, you deserve it!
My selfies often include videos of new moves I want to master or a new milestone reached. I can’t tell you how powerful these videos are!
Create Your Healthy Avatar
for a Chance to Win a $400 Gift Card!
Not sure you’re ready to blast photos of yourself all over the internet? No problem!
This month United Heathcare invites you to create your “Healthy Avatar” — a fun rendition of your healthy self — for a chance to win a $400 gift card. The process is super simple and lots of fun! To participate simple go the www.wedareyoutoshare.com and select “Avatar” from the top menu. Upload a selfie and have fun choosing a hat or other “topping”, your top, pants and accessories. Submit your avatar and once approved share it with friends and loved ones and invite them to create their own.
While you are on the United Healthcare We Dare You To Share website, make sure to check out the other two opportunities to qualify for the grand prize of $400 or one of the weekly $25 gift cards.
Are you ready to join me on the “healthy selfie” journey? What are some of your healthy goals for 2016?
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woah. fitness minded
Oh yes Mark!
wow
Yess!!! Are you ready for some selfie action Shreya?
I’m tired just looking at the pictures. You go girl!
Haha Thank you Sandra 🙂
I have come very lately to the selfie procedure…and the fact that it is mastered by all three of your daughters, your 8 year old included….does little to make me feel any better..hopefully your words will correct that..thank you..I guess
You are most welcome Ronald, and don’t worry you are not alone. Kids are growing up with technology in their hand and it feels like an extension of themselves to them. So naturally they embrace it eagerly. It’s taken me a while to come around, in part because I’m happy without too much technology in my life. I am learning to make the most of tools that are convenient and can make a big difference. Good luck!
i need to add more fitness in my day but i always say i will and never do
You’re not the only one Alicia. If it’s important to you, and I know it is, you’ll find a way to make the time. What’s getting in the way? Can you identify that? Once you understand what’s holding you back it’s a lot easier to confront that and remove that obstacle from your path.
I’m trying to make healthier food choices, drink more water, and move more!
Those are all awesome choices Judy! I wish you much success 🙂
Thank you for the encouragement. I have been trying to take better care of myself this past year, and it hasn’t always been easy.
You are most welcome Mary! Remember to be gentle on yourself. No matter what change happens one step at a time. And if you have setbacks, don’t give up. We all face obstacles every now and then, sometimes it even seems like that’s all we face but stay committed and push through, one day at a time. You’ll get there. Feel free to reach out if you need a little extra support. I’m happy to help 🙂