Diana Matuszak - To Kale and Back: Ditch the Rules and Learn to Thrive in Food, Fitness, and Life

To Kale and Back: Ditch the Rules and Learn to
Thrive in Food, Fitness, and Life

Published by Gatekeeper Press

2167 Stringtown Rd, Suite 109

Columbus, OH 43123-2989

www.GatekeeperPress.com

Copyright 2019 by Diana Matuszak

All rights reserved. Neither this book, nor any parts
within it may be sold or reproduced in any form or by any
electronic or mechanical means, including information
storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing
from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who
may quote short excerpts in a review.

Cover photo by Katie Rae Bode

ISBN (paperback): 9781642376425
eISBN: 9781642376432

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Introduction

Shout out to all of the girls out there trying to love themselves in a world that is constantly telling them not to.

Anonymous

I AM A CERTIFIED holistic health coach, and I hate kale. Its true. Is that even possible? And get thisI also cant stand avocados that arent in guacamole form. Am I even #healthy? Yes. Yes, I am. Heres the deal though, friends. I havent always accepted my non-poster-child of health-like self. I want to share my journey to true health and wellness with you in hopes to help you find your most balanced healthy lifestyle too (with or without kale), and build the confidence to create your dream life.

Circa five years ago, I was like, Self-love? What on earth does that mean? Be so desperately self-centered and self-righteous, and always make decisions based on your own good? Sounds like a selfish witch with a capital B if you ask me.

And then the whole you are enough preachers. I would have said, Damn straight Im enough. I am a smart, driven, cute-haired, going to run the world Beyonc-type of girl. Okay? Glad we got that settled.

Alright, alright. Lets back up here. I definitely would think and tell myself all of those things repeatedly. Id tell myself that I had my shizit together and I was going down the right path, but its as if there were two very conflicting versions of me. On the one hand, I was convinced I actually was enough, but I also told myself I wouldnt attract my dream man until I had a flat stomach. That I wouldnt be my best self until I achieved what everyone else viewed as a dream body. I thought, Ill finally be living my best life when the last roll on my stomach goes away. I am such a healthy person for only eating salad today. Im bound to get the perfect body and finally feel complete.

I only wish Id taken the time to see what everyone meant by true self-love and worthiness, then I might have seen the poop with a capital S that I was about to put myself through just to get that body, and what I thought was the life.

What Im here to tell you is that self-love is not selfish. Loving yourself at every stage only helps you to achieve your goals faster. Treating yourself with more respect helps you serve others better. You are enough as you are, and are able to have every damn dream youve ever dreamt up. You are worthy of a love so strong that it allows you to feel at peace and happy every single day.

I remember reading things like this back then and thinking, Well, okay, cool, but how do you get to that place of knowing? Easy for you to say, you have the dream body and life. Much easier said than done, but thats why Im here. Thats why Im writing this bookto show you how to do that. To show you how to push past the toxicity of society, how to find TRUE health and wellness without restriction or rigidity, how to feel confident in your own skin every darn day and create the life of your dreams. And I dont mean any of that lightly. Its available to you, friend. Time to start living it. Spoiler alert... it doesnt happen when you find all of those things, but you bet your buttons Ill show you where to find it.

Sadly, the core of these beliefs (self-love, worthiness, and enough-ness) for many lies in weight and appearance. Society places so much emphasis on appearance that we begin to be blinded by it. Heres the secret, though. You CAN have that dream body. You can and you will, but not without a healthy amount of self-love and appreciation along the way. The end all be all is not just the body, its the confidence, relationship, job, energy, and level of happiness we think the body will bring us.

Trust me. I eventually found what I thought was my dream body before I found my way to true health. I was so focused on looking better, going further, doing more, its not enough yet, its not perfect yet, that I had absolutely no idea Id actually reached that thinner body I wanted from the beginning. I was so consumed with not being enough and trying to be better that I couldnt even see the thinner version of me staring back in the mirror. I was missing quite a few key pieces. Im going to tell you those key pieces so that you, friend, can slide right past all of my mistakes and get right to the end goal of confidence, happiness, and your dream life without the excess struggle.

Lets start at the beginning, shall we?

Ill never forget my third grade teacher, lets call her Mrs. W. I loved her, mostly because she always complimented my hairstyle. Im pretty sure I had a different hairstyle with cute little hair ties and bows every single day, thanks to Mom who was and is the supermom of all moms. You know what Im talking aboutthose pigtails where you put hair ties all the way down the remaining hair so theyre like bubble braids? Yep, mom was definitely Supermom.

Alright, on the next section, I want each of you to write down your weight on the second line, said Mrs. W. Looking back, Im not quite sure what the lesson was getting at. Were we learning compare and contrast concepts? Maybe something math oriented? All I remember is what happened next, because it has stuck with me like it was yesterday for the past sixteen years.

Corey, may I use you as an example for the class? What did you write down? asked Mrs. W.

Seventy-six pounds, said Corey.

Wow, really? Hmm, well, I guess you are pretty tall, arent you? Okay, Mrs. W. responded.

My eight-year-old mind froze. What? Hes just tall? Corey is much taller than me, but I wrote down eighty-two? Is that bad? Im not tall. Why is my number higher than his? What does that mean? Am I ugly? Do people not like me? I thought.

The rest of the morning I felt self-conscious.

Am I fat?

Do my friends tease me behind my back?

Do they make fun of me and I dont notice?

Until this point, I was just your average eight-year-old with exceptionally fabulous hair. I had noticed that other kids had different body shapes, most being smaller than mine. I hadnt had the belief that one was better than the other, or one was good and one was bad, one gets teased the other doesnt. Not until then.

Ring ring ring! The bell chimed, indicating it was finally time for recess. All of the other third graders and I smiled and ran as fast as we could outside to the playground. Finally! Time for the monkey bars! Looking back, Im not sure how I have healthy skin on my hands as an adult. Blisters always covered my hands from those darn monkey bars. As per usual, my girlfriends and I ran to the play set. No matter how blistered our hands were, we never missed a recess period on the monkey bars. Wed race, see who could jump to the farthest bar, and make obstacle courses by skipping certain bars. We were basically eight-year-old professional monkey barers (not a word, but you catch my drift). Jumping into our usual routine, we played all of our silly games just as we did every other day, but this day was different. That day will remain in the back of my mind for the rest of my life.