Meet Stella, the NYU student who went viral with her Tumblr post telling the world that this is her body and they need to deal with it. Her post broke my heart and made me feel empowered at the same time.

It broke my heart because of all the pain she had faced throughout her life as an overweight child. People teasing. Kids. Grown-ups. Our culture, filled with ultra-skinny Minnie Mouse figures and photoshopped movie stars. One trip to the YMCA women’s locker room during a work day morning will tell you naked bodies do not all look like the mannequins at Sak’s. But somehow, many of us think that.

I felt empowered by her words, by her snarky attitude. I immediately liked her and wanted to yell, “Yeah! You go girl!”

But then I went back to solemn. Yes, it’s important to love yourself where ever you find yourself. But it’s also essential to respect your body and to know that you CAN get it to a healthy weight (NOT a skinny mannequin weight, but a healthy weight) so that as it ages, you don’t get the many diseases that tag along with obesity. It’s important to believe in yourself. To love yourself enough to believe in yourself.

When I sat at 235 pounds, I didn’t think I could ever change. I decided to love my body as it was (though admittedly didn’t post it with a f.u. note on Tumblr). However, I was loving it right into high Triglycerides and pre-Diabetes. Of course, this came with age, but come it did.

At that point, it’s not about the culture, or about the mean kids, or about the abusive way obese people are treated in our world. It’s about loving your body enough to help it out. And when I found a healthy way to help it out, my confidence soared. It became not just about ME, but about the idea that we are all connected and meant to help eachother. There was an evolution that took place where it was no longer me-focused, but other-focused, and that felt very good. Very healthy.

Having other people confident I could get healthy was the confidence I needed to make changes. Thank you to all those people who believed in me until I could believe in myself. And, to all my clients, I hope you know how proud I am of the changes you’ve made for yourself, your families, and the culture that tends to forget what’s really important.

In the follow-up conversation on “The Today Show” Stella cried when she saw her picture and realized the scope of what had happened. Expressed she felt liberated. I hope she realizes how beautiful she is, and how capable she is of naming her best future, whatever that looks like for her. And I hope her focus will shift away from a culture intolerant of fat  to an honest look at her best health. (www.jamieweil.net.)