That last one breaks my heart.

Not only because I struggled with my body image.
or because my self-confidence yo-yoed with my weight

…but because I know I’m FAR from alone.

My passion for fitness began when I was young. Too young. It stemmed from a desire to feel good inside and out, although I don’t know that my childhood self would have used those exact words. I loved how dancing, ice skating, biking and even running made me feel.

However, that’s only half the story. The desire to feel good also had a dark side. Like too many young girls, I wished that I could have more control over how my body looked.

Since I as young as 8-years old, I remember wanting to be skinnier. “If only I could lose 5 lbs,” I thought.

As I entered high school and joined the dance team, I thought, “10 lbs. If I could lose 10 lbs, I’d feel so much better about myself in my [ridiculously tight] costumes.”

The number only grew as I moved away for college… as I started teaching group fitness and running training programs for instrutors and personal trainers.

I an extreme internal pressure to be “as fit” as my clients wanted to be.

The pressure to be thin nearly crushed my passion for helping others; I took a two year hiatus from fitness and wellness to study meditation, Buddhist philosophy and mindfulness.

Not surprisingly, this break from focusing on the physical empowered me to discover something I probably knew all along.

I bet you know it too. 

Loving your body doesn’t start when you reach some far off finish line.

Loving your body (and yourself for that matter) begins now.

It’s not conditional on a certain weight or pant size or shape.

In fact, loving yourself for who you are now is the quickest (and kindest) way to finally weigh what you want.

Honestly, it wasn’t until I completely embraced the 3-key elements that I share in this video that I started actually feeling good about myself, while no longer wanting to be or look like anyone other than myself.