Muse of the Month Blog Takeover: Undressing the Past

Julie is our Muse of the Month for June, she is an amazing friend and one of the most courageous women I have ever known.  If you glance at her Instagram (iriefitgirl) you see a gorgeous Mom (she has 4 kids, 2 of them are twins) when actually there is so much more to her.  If you are a Mom or even anyone interested in fitness I highly recommend you follow her.  You quickly learn there is so much more to this beautiful women, including a huge amount of inspiration.  I hope you enjoy her blog post below, hopefully this is the first of many to come.

xoxo, Kristi

Have you ever noticed (or maybe it's just me) that you dress differently depending on how you feel about your body? I definitely do. All winter long, I wore big, baggy sweaters and leggings or yoga pants. My jeans didn't fit. My bras didn't fit. Nothing in my closet was fitting and I wasn't about to spend money on a new wardrobe to fit a "me" that didn't feel good.

I'm a figure competitor, a fitness/nutrition coach and a single mom of 4 children ages 7 to 18. Life is busy. Life is a bit crazy. After some life stresses and battling through some tough family stuff, my body needed a break and I gained probably 20-30 pounds. In the last few months I've ramped things back up after giving my body several months of rest and I'm finally back to my "happy size." My clothes fit again. But...there's a big but...

I noticed as I started wearing my old clothes again that they were..."old." Every time I would put something on it felt drab. It didn't feel like me. I remembered when I bought each item..."I was married when I bought this...wow have I had it that long? Is it even still in style? Gosh, I didn't realize I have so much black. Everything in here looks the same." My closet was filled with "old me" clothes. I never realized until that moment, back in May, standing in my closet thinking..."none of these clothes feel right to me anymore."

This blog isn't really to sell you on Nobella Grace, (though why would you not??) but to tell you how much a part of my journey my wardrobe became. I've never been a shopper or a fashionista. I just get by and I do own a lot of black. But when I saw a Nobella Grace dress on one of my Facebook friends I had to check it out. I remember when I first looked at the website thinking, "eh, this stuff isn't really my style." But, I've known Kristi for a lot of years now and decided to take a leap of faith and try one of the dresses. In 2 weeks, I had 7 new NG dresses, most at Kristi's suggestions. All of a sudden I had several items in my closet I would have never picked out on my own. And what I found, to my delight, is that I absolutely loved every one of them.

 I know it may sound silly and simplistic, but as my body was starting to feel like "me" again, I realized that how I was dressing myself was amplifying that feeling. The last couple years have been of huge change for me personally, I'm an entirely changed person in every way. It's no wonder the way I used to dress no longer felt right to me. As women and mothers, the way we look is entirely connected to the way we feel. Put on a pair of sweats and how productive are you? Not very, at least for me. Having color, prints and feminine clothes that made me feel pretty was a huge mental shift for me and really helped to change not only my body image but also helped lift some of the anxiety and PTSD I've been dealing with.

I felt new...I felt lighter...I felt like my attire was impacting the way I felt on the inside. Usually it's vice versa but for me, dressing "happy" made me feel happy on the inside. As I said, I've never considered myself a fashionista and I still don't. I trust Kristi and go with her suggestions...if only I could get her to handle my shoes and accessories...and I feel like I finally have a wardrobe that fits me. And one of the perks...well, as a single mom (heck, ANY mom) I'm pretty budget conscious and I love that Nobella Grace is so affordable.

I figure if I'm going to spend the effort to take such great care I my body, I should at least dress it accordingly!