Ashlie Molstad knows the true value of self-acceptance. In a recent post, the social media star known as Foodie Girl Fitness shared two pics of herself taken minutes apart. In the first, she’s standing tall in a sports bra and underwear, looking sculpted and strong. In the second, she’s perched on a chair so we can see how the skin on her stomach rolls as soon as she sits down.
“If I’m going to show you the posed, put together, professional sides of me,” the 31-year-old fitness coach wrote in the caption, “I’m gonna make damn sure you see the not so flattering sides too.”
Molstad’s greater message: Loving yourself means loving your body, belly rolls, cellulite, jiggly arms, and all—and tuning out the constant societal pressure to somehow achieve physical “perfection.” As she so powerfully put it, “Our bodies aren’t broken. The message society is trying to tell us {by airbrushing everything, erasing dimples and rolls and fluff} is.”
Of course, reversing what we’ve been taught to think about our appearance is challenging. But it’s worth it, she urges. “We’ve been told for years that we’re not good enough until we {insert any of the thousands of ideas of perfection that has been fed to us over the years}. But I call BS. I say that the real magic happens when we embrace who we are, at every angle and size.”
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We especially love that Molstad looks equally happy in both images, which have been shared nearly 60,000 times. But her confidence doesn’t always come easily, she admits. “This doesn’t mean I don’t also struggle with embracing this body I was given, but it does mean that I understand working on loving me is the most important job I will ever have.”