When you wake up and look in the mirror, what do you think?

Here’s what I hope you think: I am beautiful, I am confident, I am strong.

These are words that are foreign to most of us. Instead we consume our thoughts with negative self-images and the belief that we aren’t what we want to be. This view must change.

I know it’s cliche to say that the beauty comes from the inside, so I won’t say it, no matter how much I believe it. A lot of our issues with our self image is internal. We fill our brains with negative thoughts and in turn we start thinking that we’ll never be good enough. What would happen instead if we made all of these thoughts positive? Think of what a major lifestyle change that could be.

I can definitely say that I have dealt with self image issues throughout the years. At both my lowest and highest weight, I thought I needed to be skinner. I thought that somehow a number represented my worth. That a double chin or my natural wide hips made me less of a person. I would look in the mirror and think “I’ll get there someday.” But the issue is, where is “there?” What was I really looking for? Because the truth of the matter is, with the attitude that I had I would never reach a place of comfort. I would always be searching for something that wasn’t attainable.

In my sophomore and junior year of high school, I put on some weight because of some stress that I was going through. It was a natural reaction of my body to have, but it turn I thought that something was wrong with me. I shied away from pictures, crossed my arms over my body, and tried to make myself less visible. At the end of my junior year, I was ready for a change. I started working out and trying to eat better, but I found it hard to always stay on track. Anytime that I missed a workout or ate something that I deemed unhealthy I would get annoyed with myself and think that I would never be able to reach where I wanted to be. I went through this battle for the most of the next year. I was in a constant cycle of motivation and defeat.

In the middle of my senior year, I started to realize that the only unhealthy thing about me was my mentality. I realized, firstly, that I didn’t really have an actual goal. Secondly, I realized that I was being too unrealistic. I know that a lot of people use the phrase “everything in moderation,” but I soon came to realize just how true that saying is. If you don’t let yourself indulge sometimes, eventually it will build up and amount to you feeling defeated.

I am still on my journey. I found that instead of calling it a “weight loss” journey, instead it is my fitness journey. I find that in order to change your lifestyle, you first have to change your mindset.

So I urge you to join me. Look into the mirror and repeat after me: I am beautiful, I am confident, I am strong.

See you on the next stop 🙂