Your ideal weight is the one where you can live your life. Where you can enjoy food without fear, exercise because it feels good, and use your brain for more important things than calculating calories. Those “extra pounds” you regularly fixate on losing — that is where your body naturally wants to be — that is YOUR LIFE! You do not have to spend it constantly trying to take up less space.

This photo was taken 6 years ago for this feature on Philly’s Hottest Trainers. Today, it makes me cringe, not only because I subjected myself to a contest with the superlative “hottest,” but also because of the negative comments total strangers made about my body.