"I Tried Really Hard To Hate My Thighs & I Just Couldn't"

A few years ago, the words "body positivity" might not have meant much to most people. But now, many of us know that body positivity is a movement to help us — especially women — learn to love our bodies as they are. Unfortunately, it's not as easy as it seems.

But Michelle Elman, a certified body confidence coach and body positivity blogger, is here to prove that even though loving your body doesn't happen overnight, it can happen and probably will without you even noticing.

"I went swimming yesterday with my bestie and while I was waiting for my friend to change, I was staring at my thigh and I was trying to figure out how I used to hate that part of my body," Elman wrote in a recent Instagram post, as Allure reports. "My vision hasn't changed, what I was looking at hadn't changed, how I saw my thighs changed."

She mentioned that she hadn't been working out for two weeks because she'd been sick and while the extra wiggle she saw in her thighs as a result of skipping the gym used to stress her out, she no longer worries about it.

"My first thought is that it was cute!" she wrote. "Out of curiosity, I tried to see if I could get that feeling back of hating my thighs... and I couldn't. I tried really hard and I just couldn't remember it."

Of course, she didn't lose the feeling of hating her thighs as soon as she embraced body positivity. Elman tells Refinery29 that it took a series of baby steps to get where she is now. And she has simple advice for anyone who still hates certain parts of their body: "Start somewhere."

"First of all, realize that it is possible to love your body NOW, exactly how it is, without changing it," she tells us. "Realize it is a possibility for YOU, not just everyone else and then start with one small decision to stop vocalizing your negative thoughts about your body. Your steps will be different to mine, your process will be different to mine but the key similarity is that we both had to start somewhere."

Someday, the work will pay off.

"One day in your life it will become easier to love yourself than hate yourself and I promise that day will come, as long as you believe it's possible," she wrote.

It's your body. It's your summer. Enjoy them both. Check out more #TakeBackTheBeach here.