The great dress debate! The black or the red dress to wear to the CMA awards. This was a struggle for me for several reasons. I really loved both dresses, they were both the same price, and they both fit almost perfectly. BUT, the big difference is I felt more comfortable in the black. I’ve always gone black…it’s slimming! I felt like the red dress made me look bigger. But then the argument kept coming up that I’ve worked very hard to get my body where it is now, I should show it off in the red. Which I agreed with….but the black dress made me feel skinnier…so there’s the dilemma. After a LOT of internal debate…I went red! The black dress was a safe choice, which really isn’t my style. And I needed to make another step forward in feeling more confident in my own body. One of the hardest parts of losing weight and getting healthy is all the mental struggles. Losing weight, even a large amount of weight, doesn’t magically make your negative thoughts about your body go away. That’s also part of the process of getting physically healthy…is getting mentally healthy as well. Realizing what your issues are and slowly trying to resolve them. I know for me, even though I’m far more confident now than I’ve ever been, I still struggle with seeing the old me in the mirror. I focus on flaws sometimes, and most of the time it’s just flaws that only I can see. And I’m really working on that. And the red dress helped! I decided I need to own it. I have curves, and I work very hard for those curves. No more hiding behind giant t-shirts and baggy jeans. No more hiding behind a bunch of black. I got to go up on stage and sparkle! And I’m shutting out the negatives that the old me immediately wanted to go to “your arms look fat” “your hips are too wide” …and replacing it with “You look amazing!” “You rocked it!” “You look healthy!” Don’t let the negative voices stop you from letting you shine, you absolutely deserve it. If you’re not there yet, don’t worry, you’ll get there! We both will