thesumofmypartss:

One of the most frustrating things I see when perusing the ‘fitspiration’ and ‘fitspo’ tags is when I read posts where girls are freaking out because they’ve gained weight and they’ve been working out so hard and they might as well give up. Trust me, I know what that’s like. My mood for the entire day was once defined by whether or not I had lost weight from the day before. It’s a tired adage - that muscle weighs more than fat, but it’s true.

Ladies - take pictures & take your measurements. The photos above were from the first day that I went to the gym and then 30 days later. I gained weight.. while it’s only 5 lbs, keep in mind that is over 5% of my starting body weight. However, you will notice that I look slightly thinner in the picture on the right. I also made measurable strength & endurance gains in the gym. There is nothing inherently evil about gaining weight, and nothing inherently good about losing weight. Listen to your body - how much energy do you have? are things that were once difficult now getting easier for you? do your clothes fit differently than they used to? Don’t let an arbitrary number on a scale define your worth. It only has that power if you let it.