Loving your body is a concept that seems so overdone in the media today, yet there are still such unrealistic images that we aspire to. Think about how many campaigns are happening right now that promote loving your body- there’s probably hundreds. At the same time, there are all these pictures and how-to articles about getting a better body. Let me just say that I support the love your body campaigns- but I think they’re going at it all wrong.

Loving your body does not only mean loving the way it looks in the mirror or to other people. Think about the way you love your family, the way you love your boyfriend or girlfriend, or the way you love your children. You see your loved ones and you want the best for them, you want them to exercise and eat healthily and be alive so you can love them for that much longer. You work hard for them, to make them proud, to keep them alive, to make sure that they are being cared for. Really think about how much you love them, and how much you do for them. You don’t treat the things you love with disrespect, you do good things for the things you love. THAT is how you should love your body.

Now, think about the time(s) that you ate a whole pizza and how you felt after that. Or that time(s) you drank an entire bottle of wine and then some, and how you felt the next morning. Scratch that, you don’t have to think about it because I can tell you how you felt: Like total and complete crap. I know because I have done both things plus a lot of other stuff that made my body feel like I’d been hit by a train. Why do we do that to ourselves? Well, there are a few reasons and I will tell you those reasons right now:

1. We feel we’re too far gone and there's nothing to be done

2. Food and alcohol taste delicious

3. We’re addicted to something (food, alcohol, cigarettes, etc.)

4. Working out sucks

5. Ultimately, we don’t love our bodies like we should

Changing our bodies is a choice that people make on a daily basis- and it is a wonderful decision if you decide for the right reasons. It starts when you decide to love yourself the way you love others. Change your body because you love it, not because you want to love it. Feed yourself fruits and veggies because it makes you feel good (physically and emotionally). Do yoga because it makes your body feel energized and flexible, not because you want to look good in a bikini. Do not decide to change your body because you want to look like some celebrity that’s been photoshopped to all hell. Do not decide to change your body because spring break is coming. Decide to change because you love yourself, therefore you respect your body enough to exercise and eat healthily. Treat your body with respect, and it will respect you (A.K.A. you’ll be hot, but that’s only a side-effect).

I am not going to pretend to be perfect here- believe me, I am so not. I will probably eat my fair share of cake and pizza this weekend at a graduation party. I am also not saying to cut all the sweetness or all the fabulous tasting carbs from your life. Having fun sometimes involves eating something delicious that may not make you feel good- like when it’s vacation and you’re on the beach with a pina colada. Do that, but get in the water and swim too. Balance, my friends. I will say this again- it starts when you realize the love you have for others is the kind of love you should have for you and your body. That doesn’t come easy, but it’s something that everyone needs to realize because eating healthy and exercising has become a fad. It’s a fad because it means looking good. Loving your body means looking good, too but this option comes with a lot more than just the looks. It comes with confidence, lower stress levels, and happiness. So do me a favor, go look in the mirror and ask yourself “Could I be any more fabulous?”

I’ll give you the answer, it’s no.