10 Ways to Feel Better About Yourself

People these days definitely have problems with self confidence. With constant pressure to live up to impossible standards of beauty, fitness, and style it's difficult to actually feel good about ourselves. And everyone deserves to be happy with who they are are the inside and the outside, even if we aren't stick thin, even if we don't have perfectly clear skin, and yes even if we have insanely frizzy "humidity hair," as I like to call it. So, here are a few easy ways for us to feel better about ourselves without altering our appearance. They work for me and hopefully they'll work for you, too, if you need them to.

1. Stop telling yourself that there's something wrong with the way that you look. There's no reason to be looking in the mirror every day and telling yourself that you're fat, that you're ugly, that your skin isn't clear enough, that your hair isn't straight enough, that you don't have the right curves in the right places, or anything else negative. When you tell yourself those things it just reinforces them, so even if it's hard you need to try to cut out the negative thoughts.
2. Stop worrying so much about being seen without makeup. You're beautiful even without your face on, girl. After I started participating in makeup-free Mondays I started feeling a lot better about people seeing me without makeup in public again. People don't really care as much as you think they do about the way that you look, and if you stop obsessing over it then you'll feel a lot better about those times you have to rush out of your apartment without any makeup on and without your hair fixed
3. Share your insecurities with someone. Even if you feel like they're going to laugh at you, even if they do, it will help a lot just to get those thoughts out of your body and into the air. What's they're out and someone tells you that you're beautiful anyways or that they don't see that problem it's easier to feel better about yourself. I shared some insecurities of mine in my makeup-free Monday post.
4. Don't compare yourself to anyone else. That includes your friends, your sisters, random girls you're friends with on Facebook, and even celebrities. You're not them and you're never going to be, so you should start focusing on yourself. They aren't going to be you either, after all.
5. Start eating right and exercising regularly. I know this probably sounds ridiculous coming from me, because I'm 20 weeks pregnant and getting big and I can't really do that much to work out, but I do indeed do yoga and I've been eating better than I ever have before even though it's really hard. Just don't starve yourself, make healthy choices, and come up with a workout plan that works for you. It'll make you a lot happier to be healthier.
6. Be present in the moment. That means don't be dwelling on things that you've done or things that happened to you in the past as well as don't be constantly stressing yourself out about what is going to happen in the future. It's important to be happy with who we are right now more than who we used to be and who we are becoming.
7. Follow a beauty routine in the morning and evening. It's definitely an accomplishing feeling when you get done with everything you need to do before you go to bed or after you wake up. Though I've changed it a little since I made the post at the beginning of the month, I follow a very strict nightly routine before I go to sleep and I wake up every morning feeling happier about myself than I did before I  started doing it when i fell asleep every night with makeup on watching TV with my sister or boyfriend.
8. Cut negative people out of your life. If you don't live up to someone's standards for how you should be then you don't need them. If they're constantly making rude comments, laughing at you, or adding any negativity into your life then tell them that they need to change it. If they still don't then you probably shouldn't be spending time with them right now. It should be important to your loved ones that you're happy, and happy with yourself.
9. Don't dress for other people. I know we've all been through that phase where we strictly follow trends or we dress how all the girls at school dress, but that may not be how we're most comfortable looking. It's important for self-esteem to develop your own personal style and disregard the standards of others. If people don't like you for who you are no matter how you dress then you should just number eight them.
10. Do the things that make you happy. We shouldn't be brought down by doing things we don't love doing. Just stick to what makes you happy, it'll make you a lot happier!

What are some things that you do to be happy in your own skin? Do you consider yourself insecure or self confident? Let me know what you're thinking.

Why It's Difficult for Plus Sized Women to Go Shopping

According to the CDC more than 35% of Americans are considered obese. That's why it's so confusing that it's nearly impossible for plus sized women to find clothing in their sizes at popular retailers, even though they sell plus sized products online.

I recently read an article about this on Huffington Post and it blows my mind. I grew up with long arms and legs, but an extremely thin frame, which caused me problems finding jeans that were long enough, but I can't imagine how difficult it would be to be plus sized and not be able to find any clothes at all in stores! These women can't possibly be sure that the clothes are going to fit and look right on them if they can't try them on for themselves.

The fact of the matter is that it just isn't okay. Not only does it alienate plus sized women even more than they already are on a regular basis, because of modern day expectations and body shaming, but it poses a huge problem to more than half of the women in the United States! How is that fair?

The research that ModCloth did came to the conclusion that "more U.S. women report wearing a size 16 dress than a size 2 and 0 combined." If this is the case, shouldn't it be more difficult for a smaller girl to find clothes? Being that girl that wears a size zero I happen to know that the stores always carry my size.

And on top of it being hard to find plus size clothing in stores many major retailers don't even carry plus size clothing at all! I won't even get myself started on the recent Abercrombie & Fitch controversy about the CEO wanting "beautiful people" to shop in their stores which is why they didn't carry bigger sizes.

I understand that brand image is important. However, alienating such a huge portion of the population from being able to shop at your stores or buy your clothes at all is not a smart marketing decision at all. Why is everyone so stuck on shallow, juvenile, unattainable beauty ideals? Everyone deserves the same treatment, so I hope that after this gets around and starts causing controversy they'll start carrying bigger sizes in more stores.

We need to fight back, because this is not okay! Let these retailers know that this is not okay to the women that they're doing this to!

If you'd like to read up more on the subject click the links below. Or if you have any feedback feel free to leave a comment below.


"Plus Size Clothing Sold Online But Not In Stores Poses Problem for Shoppers," HuffPost
"More U.S. Women Report Wearing a Size 16 Dress Than a Size 2 and 0 Combined — ModCloth Introduces Full Range of Sizes," Modcloth