“Five years ago, I weighed 30 pounds less than I do now. I wasn’t healthy. I was always so stressed out. I didn’t really talk to my friends. I didn’t want them to really know me because then they would’ve known how broken I was. I don’t know that I was really ready to fix that. I was in an unhealthy relationship. I believed everything that person told me. I feel like I used to just focus on my looks and that’s why I would exercise. I didn’t have a lot of self esteem. I was in a bad place and I wasn’t choosing to take care of myself. Back then, I thought that I looked good but now I look back and think that’s really sad. Now I look at it from the viewpoint of God gave me this body and I want to take care of it and I want to feel good. I try to focus more on that. In 5 years, I’ve surrounded myself with better people and better things to focus on. I grew because I think I had a lot of people in my life who didn’t give up on me and kept telling me the truth about my worth. I’ve learned that you have to love yourself before you can accept love from another person. I think I’m on a good track now. I have a positive outlook. I just always want to keep improving.”