…but sometimes I don’t like it.

I gotta admit, I really liked Rachel’s post this morning. As you know, I’m a big fan of Caitlin and her Operation Beautiful. (I even went to cheer her on when she was on The Today Show.)

The positive, uplifting messages can really help when you’re not feeling so great about yourself. When you need to be reminded that you are a great, strong person.

But it can definitely feel a little confusing to hear these self-love messages when you know something needs to change. “So wait? Is it okay to love myself but to change myself?”

It’s okay to be unhappy sometimes—even with yourself—it’s actually totally normal. Because none of us are perfect, and we do make mistakes, and mistakes are what we learn from. It would be great to be happy all of the time, but unfortunately, that’s not life. But the lows are what make us appreciate the highs so much more.

Personally, I love my body. I worked my ass off (literally!) for it. My body is helping me train for a marathon right now and has helped me run two half-marathons and hundreds of miles in training for these and other races. But I don’t always like it. I still have fat days sometimes. (Dude, nobody told me that fat days never go away, no matter how much weight you lose.) I still want to tone up my abs. But I try to love my body and myself more often than not, just like I try to eat more healthy than not.

I wish I had found something like Operation Beautiful when I was overweight; there’s definitely a lot of shame you feel when you’re overweight, but I 100% agree with Rachel—it’s okay to love your body but not always like it and want to change it.