I love feeling good about myself. I love loving myself. I love taking care of my body. I love my lifestyle.

I have been dedicating myself to fitness, balanced eating and bettering myself for over a year now and I have never felt so good. Not only do I feel better in my clothes, but I feel better in my skin. I feel better in my mind.

A lot of people make changes such as cutting/coloring their hair, getting a tattoo or piercing, getting a new job, moving to a new place or trying a new look. There are tons of changes that we go through in our lives, but not many changes stick.

I chose to improve my lifestyle in the winter of 2016 because I was sad, quite frankly. I hated looking at pictures of myself, I hated having to always "suck in" to look thinner and I was so tired of comparing myself to every other girl.

There are tons of positive, encouraging social media pages with men and women living healthy lifestyles, but that never helped me. Why? Because anytime I tried to be like them, eat healthy and workout, I just ended up failing a few days later. These people and their pages were trying to inspire me and I felt completely discouraged.

It's hard, you know, living in this world. Constantly having standards thrown in your face, you feel as though you're never enough or you'll never reach other people's goals.

But isn't that the main problem- trying to meet other's goals or standards? I'm never going to reach someone else's goal because it's not made for me.

I feel awesome when people tell me how great I look and tell me that I inspire them. They want me to help them with their journey and that's an amazing feeling.

But what people are failing to see is that this isn't a diet. I never call my past year a diet because it's not; it's a lifestyle revamp. The word "change" is tough to swallow, so I use "revamp" because it feels positive and energetic.

In the past year, I have come such a long way. I'm still growing, for sure, but I'm much healthier- in my mind and my body. I can look at myself in the mirror and feel pretty. I'm able to eat a slice of pizza and not think, "Oh my gosh, this is terrible. I'm so fat." I can see other women and say they are beautiful and not badmouth them because I'm insecure.

I still have a long way to go and I know I'm going to hit some bumps in my road, but that's part of the journey. I don't simply wish for something, I work for it. I won't stop because I look back at my progress, I see how much I've accomplished and I'm proud.

So never stop loving yourself. Be your own cheerleader and encourage yourself. Keep a positive mind with a positive life. You'll thank yourself in the end.

You got this.

XOXO