You wake up and immediately stand in front of the mirror analyzing your body. Your head is swarming with questions; are your legs any thinner? Is your thigh gap any bigger? Is your stomach any flatter?

Disappointed with what you see, you quickly run to the gym to fit in a rigorous two hour workout before any morning hunger pains kick in. After a strenuous workout, with at least a five-mile-run, you rush to class, running solely on adrenalin. For lunch you might have a single cup of fruit with an energy bar or low calorie protein shake. Ironically, you're not studying math, yet somehow your entire being revolves around numbers; What's my weight on the scale? How many calories are in this salad? By the time you crawl into bed at the end of the day, your head is pounding from malnourishment and you wonder why you are torturing yourself to live on 900 calories a day. You question whether skipping social activities with friends to lie in bed, hungry, is worth weighing 95 lbs. Then, your phone buzzes and you open Instagram to new comments applauding your bikini body, and you remember why it's all worth it.

Does that life sound like an exhausting nightmare yet? Because it was. I spent a year of my life consumed with trying to achieve #thinspiration. Thinspiration is aspiring to be as skinny as possible, and doing whatever it takes to reach your ultimate weight goal. Thinspiration is a popular # on Instagram that encourages girls to starve themselves in order to achieve an unrealistic body weight. Thinspiration accounts post underweight girls (or at least appearing to be underweight) depicting them as #bodygoals. It is extremely dangerous to promote or encourage this unideal body image to young girls. We wonder why so many young women suffer with low self esteem and at the same time we applaud young women who are well below a healthy BMI for being "fit" or "healthy." Let me just say there is nothing healthy about eating at an extreme calorie deficit, even if it is a diet of fruit and vegetables. Healthy means fueling your body and giving it proper nourishment, not eating just enough to survive.

It's critical we stop promoting this body image as any type of aspiration. For anyone reading this who spends everyday working toward this goal, let me tell you, it's not worth it. Nothing is worse than being too weak to walk up the stairs to class, being too consumed with calorie counting to go to dinner with your friends, and pushing yourself through hours on the treadmill to burn off that single scoop of peanut butter.

Aspire to be healthy. Aspire to live well. Aspire to have a balanced diet and workout routine. Health and fitness should be one aspect of your life, not what your life revolves around. Clear your feed and your mind by deleting any #thinspiraiton accounts on social media. Trust me, when you're living to be thin you're losing a lot more than just weight.