operation beautiful.

Remember oh so long ago when I told you about Operation Beautiful? And all about how one woman has made it her mission to make sure everyone else in the world knows they are beautiful? And how for a while I was running around with sticky notes posting them everywhere to help? 

Well check THIS out. I made her blog! See anyone you know? Two of the ones I sent in were in a fitting room, which is where I think people need the most help feeling good about themselves. The other two were at random bathroom break stops somewhere between here and Alpena on my way to visit Cory. You know, back before we were married and had to drive five hours to see each other :) 

Have you posted any love notes recently? I need to get back into the swing of it! If you have, send them to Caitlin and/or send them to me so I can tell your story.

Be the change. Make the difference.

beautiful notes.

I've realized throughout creating this blog that you cannot force people to make a difference. I get frustrated often thinking "It's so easy, why don't more people just do this one little thing?" Collect pop tops for Ronald McDonald House. Collect box tops for education. Make a $5 donation to Safe Haven. Write a beautiful note.

There are several great people in my life I don't have to ask twice to donate. They selflessly give whatever type of donation I am collecting at the time, and one of them is my good friend Lynne. This week, she posted her first beautiful note! So proud of her for spreading the love :) I know she made someone's day by just that little sticky note. Click here for more information about the organization that is changing how people feel about themselves, Operation Beautiful, and how YOU can be a part of it!

Be the change. Make the difference.

beautiful notes.

As you may or may not know, I had to have my wisdom teeth out this past Friday and have recovered fairly well...all things considered. My amazing boyfriend and my mother came to take me to surgery and take care of me afterward...and they were GREAT. Cory waited on me all weekend and made sure I had every little thing I needed. He also seemed to memorize the after surgery instructions and made sure I did everything I needed to exactly when it needed to be done. I'm so happy these two love me in all my glory (see picture).

My mom has been leaving beautiful notes from Operation Beautiful around Kalamazoo/Portage since I've been blogging about them. She is so sweet--she left me my very own in my apartment! So, in the midst of pain, Vicodin, tears, naps, more pain and even more Vicodin...I walk into my bathroom and find this:  

It made me so happy to see! Of course she's my mom, and he's my Cory Dean...they HAVE to love me when I look terrible and can't do anything for myself and have bloody gauze in my mouth. But I didn't feel beautiful, and this little love note was enough to make me feel better...which is precisely what Operation Beautiful is all about! I think I will leave it there for a while :)

Have you left beautiful notes?! Email them to me at spennerphotography@gmail.com - I would love to see them! Check out Operation Beautiful for more on how to get help and help others with self esteem issues.

Also, a quick update on my fundraising for the River Bank Run and Safe Haven Ministries... I was able to figure out how to input all the offline donations today, so the total is updated! We have raised $295 so far for Safe Haven! Thank you to my Uncle Jim & Aunt Linda, Grandma Lois and cousins Jen & Don for making that happen. You still have time to donate--click HERE to support Safe Haven and my run! 

Be the change. Make the difference.

beautiful notes.

 

I've been trying to get creative with leaving notes for Operation Beautiful so I started leaving them at the gym. Except that's really tricky to do because my gym is always SO busy, and there is always people around. Also, it's really hard to take a picture once I do leave it. I finally left a good one and had a chance to take a picture, and hope it made someone's day :)

 

I also really wanted to leave one at the grocery store, because I feel like shopping for food can be really hard. You want to get healthy things, but there are so many temptations and half the time the healthy things taste like cardboard. I hope my little note brightened someone's trip to Target. 

Have you left beautiful notes yet? If so, I would love to see them! You can email them to me at spennerphotography@gmail.com. Also, you can go to Operation Beautiful for more about the organization, how you can help and how to get help if you are struggling with body image issues.

Be the change. Make the difference.

beautiful notes.

One of the good things about driving to Alpena to see the man is that I have to make lots of stops along the way....which translates into lots of opportunities for Operation Beautiful love notes! If you missed my story about Operation Beautiful, click here. Basically it's a way to help end negative thinking and body image issues that people face daily.

The first one was taken in a Speedway bathroom in Gaylord...and the other was left at another gas station in Cadillac. I hope whoever found them smiled and felt better about themselves, even if only for a brief minute. Sometimes we all need a little pick-me-up, even in the middle of nowhere.   

Why not make a few notes of your own and leave them somewhere? It's a small way you can make a huge difference in someone's life :) 

Also, I need to give a shout out and thank you to my friend Lynne for donating to Safe Haven Ministries and supporting my run! You are great!  

Be the change. Make the difference.

beautiful notes

The first few times I posted Operation Beautiful notes, I was pretty nervous. I felt like Santa Clause or something, trying to be sneaky but at the same time so excited. I was in an Old Navy dressing room trying to find a pair of jeans that fit and were short enough for me. This can take hours in my world, so I had a lot of time to get excited about leaving the note behind. 

Sure enough, not long into trying on things I heard a little voice in my head criticizing my body. So, I decided to put the note up while I was still trying things on...and just like that, I felt better. After two rounds in two different dressing rooms, I found a pair I love and left two notes behind. I hope whatever lovely ladies found my notes feel better about themselves too.

Join the Operation Beautiful movement! You never know how big of an impact a small note can have.

Be the change. Make the difference. 

operation beautiful

I have to warn you--this has been a very hard post for me to write and I apologize in advance if it catches you off guard. However, I feel this part of me needs to be shared because it is yet another reason I want to make a difference in this world.

As a child, I can't remember worrying about my weight. As a middle schooler, I felt I was on the thicker side. By the time I got to high school, I was completely self conscious of my body and eventually developed an eating disorder. It was something I wasn't completely aware I was doing at first, and something I struggled with into my college years. Looking back, I'm not really sure how or when it started...but I knew why it started.

To start, I wasn't happy with the way I looked compared to most of my friends. I felt insecure next to them with their flat stomachs and thin legs. On top of that, my heart had been broken by a string of boys making me feel I wasn't good enough for them. I couldn't control what my friends looked like, or how the boys treated me, but I realized I could control how I looked by eating less and less. 

I got to the point where I would go entire days only drinking caffeine and not eating a full meal until dinner. I thought if I starved myself, and lost more weight, I'd feel better about the size I was. As I went off to college I became completely dependent on my way to lose weight. When everything in my life was changing, it was the only thing I felt I had control over. And the only thing I thought would make me feel better.  

Now, almost twenty-five years old, I can't believe the way I treated myself or how long I hid it for. The very few people who knew and tried to help, I couldn't hear. I've been better for a long time now, and happy to say I love my body and the shape I am in today. And I'm in this condition because I've been working my ass off at the gym, and eating right. But it makes my heart hurt to think of the girl I was during that time. And it hurts even worse to know that the statistics show anorexia is becoming common in girls starting as early as age 8 now. 

In my attempt to save the world, I want to do something to help young girls who feel the way I did. That's when I found Operation Beautiful. This blog was started by a woman named Caitlin who wants to end negative body image thinking (as she calls it, "Fat Talk") in girls, women and men. She began by leaving sticky note messages in bathrooms, grocery stores, gyms, etc. such as "You are beautiful!" in hopes to brighten a stranger's day. Her small act caught on, and her blog is now filled with stories of people finding the notes and how it changed them. 

So... I made some sticky notes :) And I have them in my purse and will be leaving them everywhere I can so that whoever finds them knows they are pretty. That they are beautiful just the way they are. I challenge you to leave some sticky notes too. You have no idea the way one comment or note can change someones life...it may be just what they need at that time.

Be the change. Make the difference.