Health is extremely vital to our quality of life, and it's a larger trend now than it has ever been. I think it’s amazing that fitness is promoted because we should be a society that values ourselves enough to want to live a long and prosporous life.

At times though it just becomes a trap.

Companies prey on your insecurities. They try to convince you that you need to change in order to achieve happiness. They associate anything they can with what you may want by tying a number on a scale to it and your happiness. Ads are everywhere — just to try to get you to buy into the fact that you need to be perfect to achieve the life you want.

Changing your exterior will never change your interior.

I’ve fallen for the trap way too many times — the idea that, if I could just look a certain way or change the things I don’t like when I look in a mirror, then I would be happy. As a child, I remember looking at magazines and thinking, "If I could be her, I would be so happy."

I was wrong, my body was never the problem. It was my mindset.

I thought I could never be anything because my body was destined for failure when really, my brain was. For years and years, I tried to change my body because I thought it was defective and stupid. I didn’t care what happened to it. Quite frankly, I just wanted it to go away. But my body is a part of me, and by hating it I starting hating myself. I could tell you a million more ways diets are destined for failure but let me just tell you what works.

Listen to your body.

Personally, I just think word “diet” should be banned from the dictionary. I think it is a word with a lot of negative association. When you think about changing your way of life it should be because you realize you are your body deserve the best. Deserve to be seen and treated with the utmost respect. It's easier said than done. I can completely understand that but changing the way you look at yourself will last a whole lifetime.Making changes in your life is never easy, but your journey is yours, own it.