Brutal

Love can be brutal.

Really loving myself is not all bubble baths and beautiful clothes. It is not all steak dinners and hot fudge sundaes either.

Sometimes true love is eating green beans and avocados. It is eating eggs without salt and not drinking tea. It is giving up ice cream and spending an extra ten minutes picking, brushing and flossing my teeth before gargling with Listerine.

It is even hoofing it around the park ten minutes longer than is fun to get in some more exercise for my heart, because all the love in the world cannot live in a dying body or broken heart.

Loving me means learning to like who I am right now enough to take care of me and changing the things I need to change to keep me feeling good about myself. It can even mean not being with people who make me feel bad about myself.

Love is real. Not some storybook idea of hearts and flowers (although those could be there too!)