Let me preface the following article with this: a person’s worth or value should never be founded on a superficial basis. It does not matter what brands someone wears, where they live and most importantly—what they look like. Regardless of the size you are, what matters is your health.

The Positive Body Image Movement has good intentions. Rampant social media criticism and critique is at an all-time high. Cyber bullying is undoubtedly a problem, and no one should ever have to succumb to feeling less than anyone else because of their size. You can be beautiful as a size 0 or a size 24. However, we have a problem. As a society, we’re glorifying obesity. Being fat is not OK.

With that said, being dangerously skinny is not OK either. Our primary goal as a society should be health, not fitting into the mold of what we think is a perfect image. Let’s focus on gaining pounds of muscle rather than losing pounds of fat. Let’s think about our family—they want to see you live a long, healthy life; not a life that is cut short by an early heart attack due to obesity. Think about the nurse who might be straining her back day in and day out when you’re older because you’ve let yourself go. We have a responsibility to all of these people in our lives to live a healthy life.

Being overweight is not a cosmetic problem, it’s a health problem. The National Institute of Health denotes multiple health problems associated with being overweight or obese. Some issues include heart disease, high blood pressure, strokes, diabetes and even cancer. Four of these health complications are among the top seven leading causes of death in the United States! Listen guys, I’m not talking about the chub that just about every single female in this world has, or the men without a six-pack, I’m talking about obesity. I'm also not talking about the people who are obese due to a serious health issue; I’m talking about someone’s weight seriously affecting their life and degrading their health to the point that it is cutting years off of their life.

There comes a point when we need to take responsibility for our choices. You wake up every day and choose what you are going to eat and if you’re going to work out. So, just do it. Yeah, it takes motivation, energy and sometimes, it totally sucks. Sure, you’ll have days where all you want to eat is pizza and be lazy, and that’s totally normal! It is OK! But it is a choice not to make it a habit.

Let’s not glorify a lack of drive to live a healthier lifestyle. Get out there and find something that you love that’s active: go for a hike, dance with your friends (or by yourself), go for a run. You don’t need to be a health guru, but you do need to be healthy. We owe that much to the people who care for us. We strive to see past what is on the outside and I wholeheartedly agree that it is what’s on the inside that matters. Who cares about the number on the scale or how you look as long as you’re happy and healthy.

So let me end with this: we have a fat-shaming problem that we are consistently trying to move away from; however I see a problem with that. The problem we should be moving away from as a society is support of unhealthy lifestyles. I constantly see the praise of egregiously obese models, but they are no worse of role models than the dangerously skinny women in the magazines. Let’s set the example for our future children, our siblings, our peers and every person we love in this world, that being fat is not OK.