You know those moments when you look at a picture of yourself from a few years ago and think about how damn good you looked?

And then you remember that when you were at that time in your life you were actually unhappy with your body?

I'm definitely guilty of that. 

I used to be SO hard on myself. I was going to the gym twice a day, I tried eating only raw for 3 weeks, I trained for a fitness competition, I drank a gallon of water everyday, and I still remember seeing myself in pictures and analyzing all the things that I thought were wrong with me.

I would think that my hips looked too big or my shorts were too tight and that I shouldn't have enjoyed so much food while I was on my vacationnn and blah blah blahhhh. 

I would compare myself to my friends and make myself even more unhappy and then I caught myself looking at every inch of my body in the mirror trying to figure out how I could change it.

I was actually so stressed about my body that 1. I was seeing things that weren't really there and 2. I was probably holding on to extra weight because that's what your body does when you're stressed.

And to be honest, I was actually stuck in that for a long time. It didn't help that every beautiful girl I was around was doing the same thing. I would see these girls who I thought were gorg CONSTANTLY picking on themselves and it made me feel like I should also be more 'aware' of my body.

Girls that were super thin were talking about that they ate too much that day when they didn't eat shit and saying that they needed to work out just SOOO BADDDDD because they had some french fries earlier.

WHAT KIND OF LIFE IS THAT???

A really, really, shitty one. And I fell for it. 

So I just kinda starting trying to really pay attention to myself and I stopped listening to the other people around me that were bickering about their bodies. If they said something negative about themselves I just started ignoring them rather than feeding the fire and trying to talk them out of it. 

They would sit there and talk about how hungry they were while I was eating popcorn and they would complain about their body and I would just siiiit there and watch Ellen.

Slowly but surely I started feeling more comfortable in my own skin. I kept going to the gym and eating clean of course but not to such an extreme that took over my life. 

Kinda like telling yourself that you're not allowed to pop pimples you know? Like, just DON'T do it...then your face starts to clear up!

Don't look at yourself in the mirror and pick at your body...then you're mind starts to clear up!!

See what I did there?

I remember looking at myself a few times after I had stopped WORRYING about trying to look damn near perfect and I remember feeling HAPPY. My body looked nearly the same but I knew that I had been enjoying a stress free diet. 

I let myself enjoy a beer or a little bread before dinner or some pasta....WHATEVER. 

I still made healthy decisions throughout the day and I still got up and went to the gym. It's not like a just completely let myself go but I did pull it back a little bit and I actually felt better.

By not analyzing myself every damn second, and feeling my stomach to see how bloated I was after each meal, I started to just RELAX, and feel more confident in my skin. 

So if you're currently bashing yourself or feel like you can't have one cheat meal without running to the gym, then PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE try to take this advice.

Really try to stop staring at yourself and picking out everything that you don't like about your body. See how you feel and share below. I think it's really important to bring this up because I think there's a lot of girls out there who are going through the same thing. 

love you guys!

xoxo