Summer is right around the corner and all I hear from everyone is something along the lines of, "wow, I need to go to the gym to make myself look good because I look like a fat cow," and, "I need to get my summer body because I look so bad," and you know what? That's not right.

Making yourself feel horrible has been a technique used by many I know to motivate you to get active and work out, but is it really the best form of motivation? No, trust me. It'll work while for a week or two as you start seeing the results, but when you stop seeing a physical result, that small self-hatred that you used to motivate yourself to work out will turn into a huge, internal self-hatred that will lead you to literally hate yourself.

Is hating yourself really worth it? No.

I am someone who suffered through practically most of my teen years hating myself. I hated my appearance; I hated my curves, my fat, my height, my sensitive skin: everything. It wasn't until a year and a half ago that I realized that no one else would love me the way I wanted to be loved if I didn't love myself first.

I realized that appearances aren't everything. Being skinny isn't everything, as I thought it was. Being skinny will not bring you to love yourself if you don't already do, because you might be content with your thinness, but you'll later come up with a new body part to obsess over and hate.

I never actually reached the "skinny level" that I wanted to be so much, because I just stopped working out after I didn't see the results. But I saw others who did and still weren't happy with how they looked.

That's when I realized that there was no reason to hate myself. There was no reason to deprive myself. All that self-hatred was done in vain, really. All the dieting that I was doing was wrong, very wrong. I was practically starving myself from all the nutrients that I needed to be healthy.

Hating yourself does nothing except make you more miserable, which really isn't worth it.

And self-hatred is harder to stop than it seems.

Those comments that you make will have a worse effect on others around you, than on yourself at times. Sure, it'll have a big effect on you if you keep repeating it over and over again until that's all you can think about, but if there's someone around you who is slightly bigger than you or more self-conscience that you, then it will have a worse psychological affect on them.

That person will listen to your comment, take a look at you and then look at themselves in the mirror. They will be the first ones to hate themselves, they will be the first ones to react to those words.

I'm not saying to not say anything at all that you might use as a motivation, but just think of the long-term effects on you and the long and short-term effects on those around you after those comments.

Also think about how it's not worth to hate yourself over something not that important. Sure summer's right around the corner, but just as it comes, it'll go. But will your self-hatred leave when summer ends? Perhaps not.

Just love yourself as you are. Exercise if you want--exercise if you want to feel healthier and be healthier, but do not motivate yourself in such a way that will most likely cause you to hate your appearance and hate yourself.