My body and I aren't friends. In fact, I would consider us as enemies.

I've always had a difficult relationship with my body, I mean, who hasn't? We're constantly told by society that in order to be attractive to others, we must have washboard abs and a skinny waist. This, of course, is starting to sound trite but it is something that needs to be said. But, I would like to tell you about my own relationship with my body and maybe it'll change things up a bit.

To begin, let me tell you how I'd score myself: a definite four in broad daylight, a soft five with the lights off.

Every time I catch a glimpse of my body before I jump in the shower, I cringe. To me, it looks like an abstract painting by Picasso: strange and misshapen.

With that in mind, I don't think I'll ever be the nude subject in some classical scene of the past. To make matters worse, I found little hairs beginning to sprout on my back, subtracting even more points from my attractiveness rating.

That wonderful thing called "self-esteem" saw this as an opportunity to berate me, feeding upon the parts of my body that I decided were imperfections in order to satisfy its ravenous hunger.

"You'll never find a man with that stomach."

"Yikes, looks like someone needs to make an appointment with Helga the Hot Waxer."

"Look at the way your head just kind of melts into your neck like you have no jawline at all."

"Who would ever want to be with you looking like that?"

When I try to be kind to myself, to love the skin I'm in, the voice always comes back louder and meaner. It's hard to stop a voice that knows all of your weaknesses.

At times like these, it's okay to rely on those who love you to be your biggest fans. Have your friends hype you up, allow them to compliment you. We've built up this stigma that accepting compliments makes you vain or haughty, but here's the thing: they don't.

They can help quiet the voices that scream about how unattractive we are. They can make us see ourselves in a different light. It makes us think, "Wow, maybe it's not as bad as I thought it was"

The road to loving yourself is a long and arduous one: trust me, I'm still on it. Maybe one day, in the future, I'll be able to fully love myself and my body. But for right now, I'm just taking some baby steps.