Love, Yourself (June)

Dear Jia,

I know June is always a hard month. It's emotional and it can be very down. So please take extra care to be observant of how you are feeling. Let Matt know if you need anything, including time by yourself. He understands. I know this because he told me so last year after you had a bit of a meltdown.

Outside of the usual grief in June, you were oddly motivated. You took more pictures of yourself (smiling even) this month than the whole year combined. See . . . this is called progress. Also, this month you had your annual doctors appointment and were asked to stop giving yourself daily breast exams. Keep up that goal, and since it's been a year, I think it's time to schedule another physical if you haven't already.

This month you weighed 253 pounds, and you had really good self esteem. The air conditioner broke though and it was really hot. Your agoraphobia kept you inside too, which made it worse. Hopefully the air conditioner works this year, but regardless of how cool it is inside, I want you to go outside this summer. You didn't go swimming once last summer and you regretted it. So here's permission to buy yourself a new swimsuit. Matt, if you're reading this you need to take your wife to get a new swim suit. I don't care how much she argues. She needs a new one. Unless she's lost enough weight by now to pull off wearing that totally hot brown one she bought after the cruise in 2009.

This is what you looked like in June 2010. It was a really good month. Take more pictures of yourself, which reminds me, if you haven't already, get a tripod, you really need one.

So take a picture of yourself today, June 2011 and post it tomorrow along with the progress you have made.

Love,

Yourself