Often I hear from women who want to accept their bodies but hesitate to go all in because they think it means they are “giving up.”

To that I respond…Giving up on what?

Hatred?

Feeling shame when you look in the mirror?

Counting macros?

The guilt and judgment you inflict on yourself every time you eat a donut?

Stepping on the scale and feeling panic and dread?

Punishing your body at the gym?

Setting the same resolution every January?

Comparing your body to women all the time?

Being a disempowered woman who is a slave to society’s ridiculous beauty standards?

If that’s what giving up means, then sign me up!

How has not accepting your body worked for you? Self-criticism doesn’t make you thinner, happier or like yourself more. PERIOD.

Accepting your body doesn’t mean you are giving up on yourself, rather you’re giving up on a system that’s taken away your ability to thrive as a grown-ass woman. That is pretty heroic if you ask me.

Loving yourself is the farthest thing from giving up. I can’t think of one thing that I’ve loved and not looked after. When you accept your body, you free yourself from the prison of body hate and imagine what you can do without that burden.