Often times - as a result of undereating, dieting, overtraining and underfueling - physical health gets destroyed and emotional well-being becomes compromised.
You are not born hating your body. You are not born fearing weight gain. You learn to feel fat. Thanks to a society that believes that gaining weight in any context is shameful, unhealthy and bad, you grow into hating your body. Society is constantly trying to sell you the idea that you will never be good enough the way that you are. That you would be happier, healthier or fitter if you weighed less, had less fat around your stomach or toned up your arms and legs. As you buy in to the damaging and deceiving messages from the media, you learn that any type of weight gain will negatively affect you socially, physically and psychologically. You have been told that if you gain weight (or maintain your weight), you will look worse, you are not a good person, you are lazy or you are unhealthy.
I know this mindset shift is challenging. It will take time, it will feel like an everyday task and you may need help. It can be extremely difficult to learn how to love your body what you have spent so much time hating your body. But you must fight these thoughts in order to restore your health and to heal the damaged relationship with your body and food.
It won't be easy but the ultimate goal is to learn to really love yourself and to detach your value and self worth from your appearance. Continue to challenge negative talk. Surrender to your fears. It's time to put more energy into what's most important to you in your life. There is so much more to you than your body image. Learn to love and to accept yourself. Your body is amazing.