[hannahbeanies]

As a fat chick, feeling good about myself is difficult. Not only is it hard to feel good about my body, which is obvious, it is also hard to feel good about ME: the whole person. So imagine my disdain when I came to find out that an essential part of life, not just to losing weight but life itself, was to LOVE MYSELF.

I get up. I go look in the mirror. I say "Hannah, I love you." I am getting pretty good at it now. Some days I am lying, most of the time I am not. Although, at first it was hard to just look at myself. I hated myself so much that I didn't even want to look myself in the face. But then, I have worked years on the process of learning to love myself and now I can look at the mirror! Sometimes I can even say "Hey, hot stuff!" and actually mean it!

The point I am trying to get at is that losing weight is hard. Of course it is! What else is new? But, losing weight is even harder if you do it because you hate yourself. You hate your body and you hate the way you eat. You want to torture yourself! Maybe you even diet as punishment! Whatever you are saying to yourself, you are not looking at it from a place of love. You are only looking at it because you don't like yourself and you want to change. Something is wrong with me and I gotta fix it.

The real reason you should be dieting is because you LOVE yourself! It is a fact that sometimes, to some people, losing weight is necessary to be healthy (this is not always true). It may also be necessary to have a long life. Most people want to be around for a long time for their loved ones. Also, there is the fact that being bigger and out of shape makes it harder to do things, like being active. Sometimes just walking can be too difficult.

What I am saying is that you should never ever diet to punish yourself. First, deal with the inside before you deal with the outside. Learn to love you, right now, exactly as you are. You are glorious and a miracle! There is no one else here exactly like you! And then, take that love for yourself and use it as motivation.

I just felt like writing that. Hope it helps someone!