Fitness blogger shares inspiring body positivity message ahead of new year

'Fuel your journey with love, not hate'

Instagram (healthychick101)

The days of Christmas feasting may be behind us, but resolutions to get fit in 2018 via restrictive diets and punishing exercise regimes are already brewing.

Not so for 21-year-old fitness blogger and paramedic Riley Hemson, who goes by @healthychick101 on Instagram.

The popular body positive advocate, who shed 25kg in a year, shared an inspiring message on the importance of self-love and ignoring pressures to conform to societal body standards.

Posting alongside a professional-looking shot of herself posing in her underwear, the New Zealand-based beauty wrote: “If you’re intending on changing your body to ultimately be happy with what you see, you will never be happy.

“LOVE yourself enough to treat your body and mind with the nutrition it needs. Fuel your journey with love, not hate. Everything else will fall perfectly into place.”

Referring to her own weight loss journey, Hemson added that this realisation has been life-changing for her.

“I’m not just talking health,” she continued.

“Cause you’re more than your health. You are the way you treat others, you are the way you smile, the way you make others smile, the way you cry, the way you laugh and the way you get down and dirty on the D floor.

“You are SO MANY THINGS, remember that.”

Her comments have been met with a flurry of praise from her 77,000 followers, many of whom also shared the things they were proud of accomplishing in 2017 at Hemson’s encouragement.

“I volunteered in India teaching kids English in a slum... and then came back to London and quit my job that I wasn’t happy at, and found an amazing new one! Yewww! Love your message, it sings to me. Have a good one,” one person wrote.

“Omg this is the best thing I've read regarding losing weight ever. I gotta get me a good attitude like that. So resonating with me, thank you for that!” another added.