Stop Hating Your Body

Personal Time: I've struggled with body confidence for so long it's embarrassing. I have hinted at my struggles within past blogs, but I decided to dedicate a whole blog to the issue. Who knows? If it can help even one and a half of you feel better, ya girl is happy.

It all started in the summer of 9th grade when I realized that guys liked girls who were thin and or fit. For the first time, I thought that the reason I never had a boyfriend was because my body wasn't ideal. (MIND YOU, I WAS ONLY 115 POUNDS AT THIS TIME. SO SILLY.) That summer, I began spending hours on the internet looking at images of thin and fit women. That summer, I cut my daily caloric intake to 1200 calories. I was flooded with guilt after eating a freaking muffin. A MUFFIN. That summer, I turned down hanging out with my friends so that I could just get one more workout in. I began measuring my waist, hips, and bust, simply to make sure I was shrinking. I began measuring my self worth on the size of my waist.

Funny thing is? I was never ever satisfied. I never began resembling the girls I was striving to look like on a tumblr "Fitspo" page. Why? My body, my bones, my curves, my entire structure was created differently. The thinner I got, the worse I actually looked. I wasn't proportional. More importantly? I was unhappy.

One day, I simply quit. Sad thing? That one day was 6 months ago. Five years I spent living with a striving heart. A striving heart is someone who is so focused on their own goals, that they have no time to give to others. No time to simply sit down, listen to others, and offer support. I love helping others, but I struggled with putting my whole heart into a situation because "there was always something I could be doing to better myself."


TURNS OUT IT'S OKAY TO GO UP A SIZE IN YOUR  CLOTHES. Turns out, you don't die. Turns out, you lose absolutely no friends. Turns out, not a soul notices or cares. Turns out, you become more beautiful when you accept yourself.

Accept who you are. 

Once I accepted the face that I will never be Candice Swanepoel and began loving myself, everything changed. I found out what I really enjoyed: my personal interests and hobbies. I began looking at the things I loved about myself in the mirror instead of the 933984302 things I could find wrong. I began to realize that not everyone is going to like the things that I like and that's okay.

Open your eyes to the passions that God has placed in you, and run with them. Stop putting your life on hold to have a certain appearance to the world. God gave us dreams, desires, and talents, why waste them trying to achieve someone else's?