I am a firm believer in the fact that every body is beautiful in their own way. Some people love having a curvier figure while others do not, and that’s perfectly fine. However your friends and family decide to feel about their bodies you should support them. Whether you agree or not, it’s not your body and it’s not your choice. Be there for them and support and encourage them through it.

When I talk about the fact that I want to start exercising and losing weight there is ALWAYS that one person who thinks they know what’s best for me and tells me something along the lines of “you’re not even fat, you don’t need to lose weight,” “you look fine, shut up,” or my personal favorite, “some girls would kill to have your figure.”

Although all of that may be true I’m not talking about losing weight to “look better” for other people. I know I don’t look terrible. I don’t care that men like “something to hold on to” (let me just go vomit really fast.) The truth is we all like what we like. Not every man or woman likes a size 00 just like not every man or woman like a size 20, people like what they like.

I want to lose weight to be healthier, to feel better in my own skin. I don’t want to hide the fact that I’m out of breath every single time I walk up a set of stairs. There are plenty of girls of larger stature who don’t get winded walking up a flight of stairs and that’s because they’re in shape.

Being in shape doesn’t necessarily have to do with your size and I think people fail to realize that. I can go to the gym and outrun someone who is half my size but, yet I still need a minute after walking up stairs.

For some of us we really do not care how the world sees us, we just want to feel better for ourselves. We want to feel better in our skin, we want to walk upstairs and breathe normally, we want to go for long walks/runs without being the first one to tap out. We want to feel great and be great so let us be great, stop trying to hold us back.

The next time your friend or family member feels close enough to you to open up about wanting to lose weight, be there for them. Don’t make them regret telling you. I will repeat, DO NOT make them feel so bad about coming to you and expressing their feelings that they now feel silly.We get one body in this lifetime, if someone decides they want to be a little healthier, whether that be gaining or losing weight, let them. It is their right to take care of themselves and no one should make them feel bad for feeling the way they feel.