Here's How To Get The Perfect Spring Break Body

With spring break being just weeks away, there is only one thing to do: love and accept your body no matter what anyone tells you.

All too often, I stumble across Facebook articles that promise to help me lose 10 pounds before heading out on my spring break trip. They want me to attain the "perfect spring break bod!" But what is a spring break bod? If I follow the program, will I look like a super model? Will I have long legs and an impossibly thin waist like Kendall Jenner? Of course not. That kind of figure is almost unattainable unless you have been #blessed with great genes.

As someone who has struggled with body image my entire life, these advertisements and incessant posts do not make me feel all happy inside. I used to starve myself leading up to the day I had to put on a bathing suit. There is nothing more vulnerable than taking off your cover up in front of a bunch of people. I felt as though it was a grand unveiling of stretch marks and cellulite. I used to envy other girls and their perfect figures. I wanted everything I thought I didn't have. It took many years of this unhealthy self-hate for me to realize that it didn't matter what other people thought about me. The only person I needed to impress was myself. When I looked in the mirror, I was happy with the body God had given me.

A spring break beach body is just a body. Your body, my body, his body, her body. It doesn't matter. If you have a body, you are ready for spring break! Don't stress yourself out trying to make it to the gym every day. It's ok to take a day off to watch an episode (or an entire season) of shameless. There's no shame in that, no pun intended. There is also NO diet worth skipping a fresh baked chocolate chip cookie from the dining hall. Regardless, it's almost impossible to eat a zero calorie, zero carb meal without feeling sad. Add that scoop of guac on your burrito bowl and enjoy a Netflix binge because you are on your way to your perfect spring break body!