Love

Guiltless celebrates American Heart Month with a salute to love....

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Live, Love, Learn

"Confidence comes not from always being right but from not fearing to be wrong."

- Peter T McIntyre

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We all make mistakes sometimes. Don't waste time with regret or guilt. These are emotions that cause you to live in the past. What counts is how we learn from our mistakes, how we live life moving forward after we've acknowledged our misfortunes, how we love post broken heart, and how we remain fearless in the face of the unknown.

A Life Long Romance

You got the Love

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You Got the <3

This Valentines Day Fall back in love with YOU

Oh Valentine's Day. A special day to celebrate love, which can be wonderful for starry-eyed lovers, turn singles to romance movies and Ben and Jerrys, and paints the town red and pink. But everyday, everywhere, everyone wants to be loved. More than money, more than beauty, more than “things” many of us are just searching for love. Not to sound cliche, but how can you expect others to love you if you loathe yourself? We seek out pure and unconditional love, but how many of us grant ourselves that gift?

In a stunning new survey done exclusively by Glamour, young women recorded an average of 13 brutal thoughts about their bodies each day (some had as many as 35, 50 or even 100!). 300 women of all sizes from across the country were asked to note every negative or anxious thought they had about their bodies over the course of one full day. The results shocked us—97 percent admitted to having at least one “I hate my body” moment. I have some news for you: obsessing about what you eat or look like doesn’t make you look any better. In fact, it can just make things worse. Much worse.

So this Valentine's day, as you give some love to your mother, brother, sister, lover, share a little bit of love with yourself. It is your right to fall so deeply in love with yourself. Gift yourself the gift of accepting the person you are today, right now in this moment and love him or her, all of you this Valentine’s Day.

Show yourself a little self love this valentines day:

• Write a list of 5 things you love about you today.
• Say "Stop" out. loud. next time you have a negative body thought.
• Give yourself some me time: Take a long bath. Read a book. Go for a walk. Write your future self a message
• Focus on health, strength, joy and energy rather than weight: Eat and engage in physical activity that makes you feel great rather than tired and drained.
• Appreciate your body for what it does, rather than how it looks.

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Be confident. You are beautiful, sexy and deserving of all the love in the world! Happy Valentine's Day!

Black Monday

I recently became aware of the term "black monday" with its "turkey dumps" ie the weeks around the holidays have statistically the highest likelihood of splitting with your significant other. (Want proof? Facebook tells all-check out this fantastic infographic ). While this fact made my single-heart pretty sad, it also made me think about how the holidays can put a strain on all sorts of relationships. Family time can be filled with joy, but sometimes tension, as the pressures of pulling off that perfect holiday soiree build. The Holidays are often a time when we break up with ourselves. Ok, while You can't totally break up with you, but you can have a very miserable, abuse relationship.We might stuff our body with too much food one day, and then starve it the next. Getting shaken out of the comfort of home workout routines and eating schedules, as well as many holiday commitments can put quite the strain on your relationships with YOU! Maybe you spend too much time pleasing others without worrying about putting "me" first. Let this serve as a gentle reminder to break this Black Monday trend!

To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.- Oscar Wilde

you deserve to not by guilt-ridden and tormented by YOU
you deserve Love from YOU
you deserve Respect from YOU
you deserve to be nurtured and supported by YOU


Don't let the holidays break up your relationship with yourself! Bathe in self love and respect, and watch all the other tensions of the holidays fall into place!

Are the holidays an easy or difficult time for you to remember to care for yourself?

Food Is Love

Love is an act of courage, not of fear

-paolo freire.

Love is not toxic or tough. Love does not mean obsession. Love does not mean binging. Love does not mean restriction. Love means balance. Love is respect. Love is beautiful, whole, and free.

There is no sincerer love than the love of food.

George Bernard Shaw

Food Is Love. Food should not be something we are afraid of, that we cringe at, that we must repent and pay penance for. Food and our bodies should be treated with respect, not guarded with guilt over the fear that they cannot make the correct decision. Our body knows what we want, what we need. Be courageous and listen to it guiltlessly. Enjoy your food, 100% guilt-free. Welcome food into your life with open arms, without guarding your heart against it.

What is one food that you Love? Is Food love in your life?

Rapheal's women

My BEAUTIFUL little sister wrote me this after I told her about Guiltless. We've been best buddies since birth, and though our life journeys have taken us to opposite ends of the globe, she is one very mature 18 year old. fun fact: one day when we were oh, probably 11 and 14, we named our stomachs. Her always flat stomach has been always something i have been jealous of. So this was a poignant read for me, take it away summer! -elizabeth

By Summer Jarrard

The more I see, the more I realize that beauty is not solid. Beauty is not a stand-still frame. Beauty is how you move with it. Beauty is something that pours out from within, a swirling sparkling magic pooling from our essence. It is our soul coinciding perfectly with our body. I have seen woman, who in a stand-still frame, are nothing extraordinary. But the way they laugh, talk, smile, radiates a light. And just the same, I have seen women with tight bellies, tight thighs, tight everything, and the same goes to their eyes, their lips, their beauty is nothing that carries beyond a second. Our minds get caught up within the stand-still frames we see of beauty. But we are not photographs walking around. We are real, moving people, with a loudness to match.

Our city park is packed with the strong and the wild. The International Climbers Festival is here, which brings the burliest of the burly. Buffed out arms, legs that show strings of muscle when they move, smiles on weathered faces. The women. Oh, the women. With their arms that speak of mountains, their stomachs that tightly hold in PowerBars, their legs that stand attention when walking.

I haven't exercised in a few months. I have been traveling and lost all sense of moving my body beyond the daily needs of having no car. I have stopped fooling myself into believing that afternoon walks suffice, and this morning I went for a run. And I ran in my sports bra and short shorts. And I celebrated having a belly. I celebrated my legs somewhat shaking in their boots. I celebrated being the type of woman Raphael would of liked. I ran past climbers getting ready to greet the day and I greeted them too. Who cares if they don't know that the belly is a result of too many chapatiis and Guatemalan burritos.

I look around our world and wonder, Where are the bellies? Look at the magazines, look at the commericals, where are the soft warm women bellies? Then I look in the mirror, I look at my sister, I look at my mom, I look at my friends. There they are. One of the most wonderful parts of being a woman is the belly. Soft and pliable. Warm and inviting. Shaking with laughter. The way it curves, and smiles, and dances with me.

Sisters of the world, show your bellies. We are meant to be fluid. Let the men have their flat stomachs, their strong arms to hold us. We hold our strength in different ways.

And I tip my cap to these burly woman too. Good for you, to show your strength, to push your limits. But I am happy with my softness, my corners to hold you in. My belly smiles with delight too.

Thank you Summer for sharing these words! You are beautiful!

Do You match our current vision of "beauty" or are you one of Rapheal's women?