Stephanie

I've been on a healing journey over the last six years. It's been a slow, gradual journey of learning to love myself, and learning to love my body has been a big part of that. I've lost 80lbs; you think when you start your weight loss journey that your body changing is what's going to fix everything, and then your realize along the way that it's totally not the cure at all and you have to start doing the real work.⠀
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You'll never be satisfied; you'll just keep trying to achieve a certain body, but you'll realize that isn't what you are really searching for. For the longest time I just wanted to be smaller, but things really changed for me when I started to focus on being stronger. I love lifting weights, I love doing things I couldn't do before, but it's really the mental aspect of showing myself that I really can do things I would never have thought I could do that brings together the mental and physical aspects of it all. ⠀
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I really believe all bodies are beautiful. We've been conditioned for so long to hide things like scars, stretch marks, things like that, but you know, my body's been through a lot! It's been through stress, through trauma, two babies over 8lbs, two C-sections, and when you look at your body that way — that it's strong and capable — you realize those are the things we should be celebrating.