Dawn envied Cindy’s “perfect” body.

Cindy had a straight shape, like a pencil.

She could wear skin-tight jeans, and there wasn’t an ounce of fat on her.

It was like she walked around with an Instagram filter.

Dawn hated how, when she wore jeans, her thighs touched.

Cindy envied Dawn’s “perfect” body.

Dawn had an hourglass shape. She had curves in all the right places.

She could wear skin-tight jeans, and everything looked on point. Damn, she could be a Kardashian!

Cindy hated how, when she wore jeans, her body had no shape. It seemed so blah. She would kill for some curves.

We’ve all done dieting, or weight loss pills, or too much exercise and, the result-- we still wanted to change ourselves more to look like her.

Bodies come in all shapes and sizes. Not one is better than another.

We don’t have to love our unflattering angles.

We all have them.

Even she has them.

And dieting or cosmetic surgery, won’t make us more confident. We’ll keep finding another part of our bodies to change if we’re unhappy.

Because what we really hate lies beneath the surface.

We need to accept ourselves entirely.

Once we do, we can get closer to finding our happy.

Bodies aren't supposed to look perfect. They aren’t made to be billboards that are gawked at. They are made to do incredible things:

They can carry babies.

They can feed those babies.

They can run marathons.

They can spread kindness by volunteering.

They can do anything we want them to do.

We’ve all done dieting, or weight loss pills, or too much exercise and, the result-- we still wanted to change ourselves more to look like her.

If we put all of our time into getting the perfect body, we’ll lose the person inside of it. And we’ll still never become her because she only exists in our minds. We will just keep cutting the fat out of our lives until we lose everything that made us, us.

Because when we lose the weight, we’ll be x lbs. lighter, but we’ll still be the same person with the same problems.

Value goes way beyond the physical.

It’s who we are.

It’s our minds that need altering—

not our bodies.

Because her doesn’t exist.

This post originally appeared on the author's Facebook. Her book Living FULL: Winning My Battle with Eating Disorder is available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2O4mJId