Staying healthy is important as it gives us energy, allows us to stay active, and prevents disease. But some people devote their lives to sculpting their bodies to fit the tight and toned images they see on TV.
But sometimes that sculpted body comes at a cost.
Jolene Nicole Jones of Montana found that maintaining the perfect body cost her her happiness. The 26-year-old recently posted on social media to discuss how she went from “body builder to body lover” and couldn’t be happier.
After entering a fitness competition two years ago, Jones explained that her diet and exercise routine took over her life.
“This isn’t your typical transformation photo,” she wrote in her post. “I went from being controlled by my grueling gym regimen and weighing chicken and having protein shakes in my purse to fully enjoying a social life. Some people might say this is ‘letting myself go’ but you can’t put a price on happiness.”
This is show Jones used to feel about herself “embarrassed.”
Jones’ diet and exercise routine eventually started taking a toll on both her body and mind. She began to despise her regimen and realized she no longer had a passion for it. She said that her routine began to give her a negative self-body image and that she would start to feel “fat” if she didn’t have a six pack.
“What was I trying to improve? Who was I trying to impress?” she said to Metro. “It didn’t feed my happiness anymore.”
She hasn’t been to the gym in three months, the longest since she started lifting about five years ago. Jones is now sporting a slightly curvier figure at a size 5 as opposed to a size 2 and loves it.
Ditching the strict routine has given her life back.
“A six pack didn’t make me happy,” she wrote on social media. “I was never enough and always needed to improve. Today I went rafting with friends and enjoyed the food the old me would have drooled over and wouldn’t have dared to touch.”
She still likes to eat healthily and stay active but doesn’t enforce strict boundaries on herself.
She says she now tries to practice self-love and thanks her body every time she goes on a hike or walks her dog.
“Your body is quite LITERALLY the only thing that gets you through this life, your worth and joy isn’t weighed by what you can life or what the scale says,” she wrote. “My worth is weighed by those I surround myself with and the smile on my face.”
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