Coming into college I wasn’t too nervous about the Freshman 15. To be completely honest, it wasn’t even a thought in my mind. I lived in a house where there were always healthy options and a healthy/active lifestyle was encouraged. My parents always wanted me to be physically active and watched what I ate and I learned how to successfully do that for myself starting at an early age. When I was 13 years old I weighed about 155 pounds and I was around 5’4”. I’ve just always been a big kid so my parents always tried to instill good eating habits in me, but It wasn’t until I was 15 that I realized I desperately needed a change or else my self esteem and health were going to go down the drain. My first big chunk of weight loss was during Lent season at my high school. I went to a private catholic high school and my religion teacher asked us to give up something during Lent and I decided to give up something I thought was simple, and could definitely lead to a bigger result. So for three months I gave up potatoes. After almost a month of this habit, I began to cut out more than just potatoes. Cutting out carbs in general and developing my own workout routine really helped my weight loss at that point. The summer before my sophomore year I was down to 140 and I had never felt better about myself, but since I had lost all this weight in just four months, I hadn’t yet learned how to make these habits a lifestyle. So I quickly went back to my old routine of eating whatever I wanted and not thinking about what it was doing to my body. During high school I lost a significant amount of weight twice: second semester of freshman year, and first semester of my senior year. I have to admit I liked myself a lot more after my weight loss in senior year because at that point I was taller and I had filled out a bit more. Friends and family started to notice and I was really proud of myself. I was starting to get more attention from guys and up until then I thought that that’s what I had always wanted. Like that was the goal for losing weight, to be more attractive. After going through my two big transformations, I’ve finally realized that the goal of weight loss should not be for other people. It has to be for yourself and your well being. I always thought that if I lost a certain amount of weight and looked a certain way that guys would be into me, and that I’d feel more confident; but I quickly realized that the right person will accept me no matter how I look. This is an idea that I really want to enforce with younger girls as well. Your body doesn’t define who you are, and if you think it does, you’re sending yourself down the wrong path and I promise it will be very hard to get off that path. Body positivity and self confidence is such a beautiful thing that not many girls realize. If you’re confident in your own body, others won’t even get the chance to judge you. Be proud of who and what you are because no one can take that away from you.