Powerful Facebook Post Reminds Us to Give Ourselves a Break

When is the last time you stopped to appreciate your body for what it is? When you didn’t think about its flaws, or areas you could work on, or “trouble spots” you were tired of dealing with?

Molly Galbraith, a 31-year-old fitness trainer and former competitive bodybuilder, posted on Facebook on New Year’s Day reminding us all to give ourselves a break.

Check out the bikini photo and caption she posted below:

This is my body.

This not a before picture. This is not an after picture.

This just happens to be what my body looks like on a random Tuesday in December of 2015 — it’s a LIFE picture.

This is a body that loves protein and vegetables and queso and ice cream. This is a body that loves bent presses and pull-ups and deadlifts and sleep.

This is a body that has been abused with fast food and late nights and stress. This is a body that has been pushed to the brink of leanness in figure competitions and maximum strength in powerlifting meets. This is a body that begged for mercy when it was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s and PCOS.

This is a body that has been called:

– too fat – too thin – too masculine – too strong – too weak – too big – too skinny

…all within the same week.

This body has been publicly evaluated, judged, and criticized, and those judgments have been used to determine my level of skill as a coach and a trainer, and my worth as a person, both positively and negatively.

Some people say they would “kill to have this body.” Others say they would “kill themselves if they had this body.” (Yes, unfortunately that’s actually a thing humans say to one another.)

This is a body that I spent too much time, energy, and mental space wishing would look differently.

And today?

Today this is a body that is loved, adored, and cherished by the only person whose opinion matters — ME.

This is the first year in as long as I can remember that I have made NO resolutions to change the way my body looks.

This is a kind of freedom I didn’t think I’d ever experience, and it feels really, really good.

Go Molly! That is just what we needed to hear during this season of New Year’s resolutions!

>> Read more: 15 Moms Model Swimsuits for All to See. Watch What Happened Next.