As a woman, I am deeply influenced by the beauty standards set by our society. You know the ones? Perfect woman on magazine covers, Instagram, Facebook, on TV. Long, flawless legs, perfect skin void of any cellulite, wrinkles, scars, stretch marks. Just the right amount of cleavage and full lips. Long, gloriously thick hair cascading around their shoulders like a heavenly blanket. Then I look in the mirror and this is what I see: a woman with scars on her face from a bad breakout long ago, cellulite on my thighs, stretch marks on my stomach, small breasts, wrinkles, short, fine hair, basically I am a walking misrepresentation of all the woman I described above. So I tell myself that I am ugly, not enough, worthless, fat, gross. I begin to download calorie counting apps, making a plan to lose weight and look ‘perfect’. I think of ways that I can work out harder because obviously what I am doing isn’t working. My bulimia, that has been around for half of my life starts to rear her ugly head once again and promises me a way to control myself around all the ‘bad’ foods I eat. I go into a sort of tailspin, creating this new me in my head. How can I look more like these woman I see? 

This has been my life for far to long and I’m guessing I’m not alone. Everyday we are inundated with images of the ‘perfect’ woman. We feel ugly compared to her and so we punish ourselves with grueling workouts and extra healthy foods. We go on diet after diet in search of her. It is a devastating pattern that leaves us drained and depressed. I know because I have been there. I’m there now, actually. 

It’s time to change the meaning of health and beauty in our society starting now. Why do we have airbrushed woman in magazines? Why can’t we see the ‘real’ woman in the photos, her imperfections so to speak. These magazines are only reinforcing to us that we are not good enough because we have ‘flaws’, but are they really flaws if more woman than not have them? Are they really flaws if it is the norm? I think no!

Our bodies tell a story of pregnancy, adventures, risks taken, hard times, growth, pain, miracles. We don’t need to be hiding them away, we need to be celebrating them. As woman we need to band together and change this way of thinking that we aren’t enough.

Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes and that in and of itself is beautiful. Each one of us is unique in our own way. We can’t all be the same size or the same weight or the same height. How boring would that be anyhow? 

I believe in being healthy, finding workouts that you love, eating good foods that nourish you but I also believe in moderation because who the heck can go an entire lifetime not eating a cupcake or french fries or a crazy good cheeseburger?! Not me! 

Band with me today and lets give the middle finger to the diet industry.

Let’s rise up and stop trying to mold ourselves into someone else.

Let’s celebrate our bodies and find things we love about them.

Let’s enjoy a summer day on the beach with our families and not worry about what we look like in a bathing suit.

Because in the whole of it, does it really, truly matter? Looking back on our lives, if we are lucky enough to live to be old, will we be glad that we missed out on so much? Will we think it was worth it to spend our life worrying about what we weighed or how many calories we ate? Will we smile, thinking back about looking in the mirror at our then, younger bodies, and feeling unworthy? Nope. I think we will regret a lot. We will feel like we wasted so much precious time that we can never get back.

Today is not soon enough to begin to love yourself. Throw away your scale, delete the calorie counting apps, unfollow those workout ‘fitspo’ accounts. Doing this is a great place to start. I’m in. Are you?