Most of us say there’s something about our body we’d like to change. It isn’t always easy to accept ourselves and be confident with who we are and how we look. It is easy to create unrealistic expectations for the way you look based on what is portrayed in popular media, especially during the summer. You see it on social media, in magazines as you check out at the grocery store, and you hear about it from your friends. “Ugh, I feel so fat. I need to work on my bikini body for this summer” or “I wish I had a body like Kendall Jenner.” In a lot of ways, they are not alone.

But if worrying about our appearance or obsessing over the way we look becomes a daily, or hourly, occurrence — that can interfere with our relationships, at work and at school. Those fears and insecurities may prevent us from doing things we enjoy, stepping outside our comfort zones, and pursuing opportunities to meet our goals. Eating disorders and severe anxiety can result from constantly wanting to change yourself for others or to fit a standard of beauty. Believe it or not, how you fit into another’s image of beauty only matters for so long compared to how you make relationships and leave an impression on people due to your personality.

My advice is this: eat your vegetables, have one less cookie, do your 20 minutes of cardio a day. Everything can be healthy in moderation, especially if your goal is a healthier body and not a more socially acceptable one. Do not go to extremes of skipping meals or buying into beauty fads for a smaller waist to achieve a “healthier” or “skinnier” body. In the end, what is important is a healthy body to hold your healthy mind, regardless of how skinny of a waist or how wide a thigh gap your body has.

– Kristina