Five Ways to Feel Instantly AWESOME.

Hey all! My name is Kate and I blog over at Work in Progress.  Unfortunately Cheryl is off  cycling around Virginia like a boss and therefore cannot deliver her daily dose of awesome to you. So, I’m going to try and fill her shoes! Cheryl is one of my blogger BFFs, and it astounds me how far she’s come in every aspect of life since I first “met” her – I seriously look up to this chick and it is a legit HONOR to be guest-blogging for her!

So. We all have those days. Yeah, THOSE days. You know, when your jeans are a little tight. When you feel more like a grizzly bear than a gazelle on your run. Maybe you’re puffing up like a blowfish or maybe you’re just feeling wayyyy more tired and out of it than you should be. Don’t lie, you know you have those days. I’m having one of those days right now, actually. Just throwin’ it out there so we can all get comfortable with each other

But you don’t have to hide in your room and you don’t have to spend the entire day and night feeling like you’re about to crawl out of your skin. There’s a lot of things you can do to ease the pressure (of your bloated stomach AND on your self-confidence) and feel like your awesome self again in the blink of an eye. Or, if not actually awesome…at least a little better! Here are the top five things that work for me at least!

1.    Take your pants off

OOH got your attention there didn’t I? What I mean is, if your jeans are feeling tight or if you’re just uncomfortable, don’t wear them. (I mean dude, it’s july, what are you doing in pants in the first place?) Slip on an easy breezy sundress instead – most people have the idea that a dress is fussier than jeans and a tee, but sundresses are actually SO easy to wear.  And they’re cuter than your running shorts (yeah, I called you on that. It’s okay, I do it too), so you’ll feel prettier and more socially presentable by wearing one.

who knows? She could be having a fat day!

2.    Your ass isn’t actually fat, but get off it anyways.

Two words: MOVE AROUND. If you’ve got enough time, lace up and go for a run or bike ride, or even just a walk. To be honest, working out OUTDOORS is way better for this purpose – gyms have too many mirrors and people to compare yourself to, working out at the gym might even make you feel worse.  But there’s nothing that sweat and endorphins can’t fix!  Working out also is a good way to remember that your body is powerful, and can do some pretty kickass things.

and yes, you can go in just a sports bra. You won’t blind anyone, I promise.

3.    Sleep it off

Obviously this isn’t possible all the time, but often a quick nap can do wonders for de-bloating you.  I might be a biology major but I have no idea why this is, so don’t ask. Sometimes after a long hard workout (I’m an endurance athlete, so these are a daily occurrence for me), my whole body just feels ridiculously bloated – which is somewhat normal, it’s your muscles tryna restock their glycogen stores and with that comes water. If I have time, taking a quick 30-60 minute nap actually gets rid of that and I wake up no longer feeling like a puffer fish.

4.    Get over yourself.

It’s actually physically impossible to gain 5 pounds of fat overnight. I’m not the greatest at math, but that’s 5×3500 calories MORE than you need…and I’m pretty sure most of us aren’t eating QUITE that voraciously. When you’re having a fat day, when you’re bloated – if there’s any extra weight on you it’s water. And the rest is in your head. No one else can tell, just FYI! Focus on other things – schoolwork, work-work (um, you should probs be focusing on those more than your body ALL the time, just saying…) etc. Take your mind off things by listening to music or calling a friend or picking up a book. “fat” days are usually all in your head, so just get out of your head.

^^ Good pump-up girlpower song for feeling better about yourself

5.    Don’t be a bitch

To yourself, that is! It makes absolutely no sense, if you think about it logically – “Well, I feel like crap about myself, so in order to fix that I’m going to beat myself up even MORE!”….right, okay, you do that. Instead, again, try focusing on other non-appearance related things about you – all those things that make you an awesome, interesting person to be friends with..  Or if you MUST focus on how you look, try finding at least one thing you like about yourself! I personally gravitate towards my lovely blonde hair or my face-full of freckles. There’s always something you can appreciate, even if you have to force yourself to.

So, long story short: lie down and relax a bit then get up and put on a sundress while dancing around your room to Keke Palmer. You might just feel awesome again by the time the song’s over!