I love seeing all the veggies in those photos up there. When you start trying to focus on how to include healthier foods in your daily diet, it becomes like a game after a while. How can I make this meal healthier?

Looking at it like a game > Looking at it like a chore.

Jackie’s comment from last Monday had me laughing at myself:

Today… I went to the gym and then finally splurged and bought myself the “good” shampoo & conditioner.

This was SO me for the longest time. Years and years. I would buy the 99 cent shampoo and conditioner as a rule (ask my husband, he’ll confirm this).

Even when I was no longer a “poor college student”, I was still certain that it made no difference if I bought cheap shampoo, so without a second thought I’d buy whatever was least expensive. I even viewed getting a haircut as an extravagance.

The issue here, as I see it, isn’t that I didn’t want to spend the money. It’s that I wore this almost as a badge of honor – you couldn’t get me to pay more than 99 cents to wash my hair. I enjoy living life on a cross, evidently.

And forget having my hair professionally colored – my grays would just have to make do with boxed color. Assuming I ever got around to coloring them, anyway. And believe me when I tell you that my grays are b-a-d.

Why did I do this? Why did I not care how I looked?

After all, I could afford a haircut for heaven’s sake. And a slightly more expensive shampoo. And coloring one’s hair, while not the most exciting experience, isn’t difficult.

I just figured it wasn’t worth spending the time and money on.

Or, rather, I wasn’t worth spending the time and money on.

This went on for years until finally, for my birthday this past year, I decided to splurge and get my hair professionally colored and cut. And anyone who’s ever had this done as opposed to home coloring and letting their split ends run amok for years at a time knows how I felt when I left that salon.

Like a new woman.

And it didn’t hurt that Rob told me repeatedly how much he liked my new ‘do.

I go back every four weeks now.

And I feel silly for having waited so long to make this change. No, it’s not cheap – but in how many other ways was I spending the same amount of money without giving it a second thought? Lattes from Starbucks, the salad bar at Whole Foods because I was too lazy to pack my own lunch, etc. Several days a week, every week.

In retrospect, I probably spent more on those extravagances than on my hair.

So like so many other shifts, this one involves deciding what’s more valuable – an extra twenty minutes a day to zone out in front of the news while I could be packing my food for the day, or feeling more presentable and attractive?

Duh.

Feeling good about ourselves shouldn’t be looked at like an extravagance, but rather an investment. So whether it’s spending money at the salon, or on slightly-more-expensive healthy foods, or spending time at the gym or going for a run, it’s a much better use of your resources. Go for it!

And if you ever feel guilty for spending these precious resources on yourself and you find yourself asking “why”, remember what they say in the commercials: Because we’re worth it.

Do you spend money to get your hair/nails/whatever done regularly? Or do you cringe at the expense, like I used to?

Share with me – how have you honored yourself this past week? How do you plan to do so going forward?