I spent most of my life believing that if I could just lose the weight, I would finally become the woman I wanted to be.

I thought I would automatically feel confident. I thought I would stop comparing myself. I thought I would love pictures of myself, feel comfortable in every room, and never question whether I was enough again.

And then I lost almost 100 pounds.

It changed my life in so many ways. It showed me that I could do hard things. It taught me discipline, consistency, and what happens when I stop waiting to feel ready and start doing the work.

But losing 100 pounds couldn’t teach me how to love myself—because loving myself was never something a smaller body could do for me.