I can't really pinpoint an exact moment in my life when I started feeling self-conscious about the way I looked.

Honestly, it's hard for me not to believe that I emerged from my mother's womb with a whopping case of body issues. My love affair with food started at a ripe age, so I have bad genes and my lack of athleticism and sworn allegiance to MSG to thank for all the "overweight" BMI test results I received in elementary school.

Regardless, my weight was always something I was conscious of and a very touchy conversation topic. I let it control me for years, essentially dictating what I said, who I talked to, and how I allowed the world to see me. I ran to food as an escape from my problems and ate to calm the stress and anxiety swirling around in my head.

As you can imagine, stress-eating became a major problem for me in high school. I would come home from school and clean out the pantry as if I hadn't seen food in two weeks. An even worse problem bloomed when I got my license simply because it became incredibly easy to just go to Taco Bell after school every day and order a Quesarito without thinking twice.

Some kids do drugs to cope. I ate cupcakes.

After reaching my heaviest weight in the tenth grade, I experienced my first real feelings of guilt and helplessness. I decided I didn't want to be trapped in the cage of saturated fats and whole pints of Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey anymore and wanted to live a long and healthy life, and the path I was on only really led to destruction... and heart disease.

I wasn't really all that committed to the cause until my senior year of high school. Dreading the potential of going off to college in the fall and packing on the freshman fifteen scared me. So, like anyone else, I dipped my toes a little deeper into the water. It started off small- one less trip to McDonald's here, one less Dr. Pepper there. By the time summer rolled around, I was making full-fledged health conscious decisions and exercising moderately (and by "moderately" I mean occasionally watching Netflix on the treadmill rather than on the couch).

Going to college, however, was a major turning point for me.

I kept only healthy, nutritious food in my dorm room for the most part (let's be honest, I made my fair share of trips to the vending machine downstairs on the toughest of days) and discovered the holy Mecca of Arkansas State that is the Red Wolf Center. There are fitness classes, an indoor track, and a rock climbing wall. I had never had access to something like it before, and it really made diving head first into exercise seem exciting. I mean, I was indirectly paying for it- why not give it a try?

After months of figuring out what I liked to do in the gym, discovering what I didn't (A.K.A stationary bikes and rowing machines), eating my vegetables, and running my stress away, I started to feel comfortable in my own skin for the first time in my life.

It wasn't necessarily because I had cut my pant size in half or shed twenty-five pounds since I had gotten there. I mean, that was nice and all, but I like to believe my newfound confidence was rooted in my newfound health. For once in my life I would be perfectly fine getting one of those dreaded BMI evaluations in the mail because I could confidently say it would read "normal." I discovered a new outlet for stress that didn't put such a negative emphasis in my life. I could run a mile in under eight minutes and not throw up. I actually looked forward to eating oatmeal every morning.

Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of times that I made a 1 a.m. trip just to get a few Kum&Go donuts (I am only human), but that's what this whole thing is about: balance. I learned the hard way that cutting everything out and never treating yourself will only lead to disappointment and too many times of falling off the wagon to count. Trust me, you don't want to be the person that only eats salads and ends up going crazy and eating an entire package of Oreos... Not that I would know anything about that.

People always ask me what my secret is- how I did it. Honestly, I always feel bad because there really is no secret to tell.

My advice to you is this- if you're unhappy, the only way you can fix that is by getting up and doing something about it.

At the end of the day, I didn't really see true progress until I wanted to make a change for myself. You have to realize that there is a problem and you have to be willing to push yourself past the barrier of your comfort zone to fix it. Keep an open mind and don't be afraid to sweat. Try the brussel sprouts. Take the kickboxing class. Cut back on the Andy's custard you get three times a week.

Be willing to educate yourself. I spent so much of my time reading about what I needed to eat in order to properly fuel my body, what different types of foods were in technical terms and how they help my health, how much I needed to eat of those foods, and what kinds of exercises were best for what my goals were.

Get an exercise buddy. My roommate was the best motivator I could have asked for. She cheered me on through all of my milestones, like when I ran my first mile without stopping, and she pushed me to push myself. Have someone there with similar goals to remind you that you can and will do it.

Lastly, know that the journey to being a healthier you never really ends, and this change is more of a lifestyle revision than a temporary phase. Learn to love yourself and learn to love your body and treat it like you should, but never forget that sometimes you really do deserve that chocolate chip cookie dough Poptart.