Instagrammer shares an important message about body self-acceptance

The key to happiness is balance

Instagram (The Lean Lawyer)

An Instagrammer has written a very important message about self-acceptance and finding happiness.

The Lean Lawyer, whose real name is Alex, is a 22-year-old trainee lawyer from London.

Alex impressively manages to balance the intense work required to become a lawyer with a healthy lifestyle, which she shares with her 61,000 Instagram followers every day.

While Alex’s life may seem perfect from the outside, the road to health and happiness wasn’t always smooth sailing.

She used to believe that the key to being fit and healthy was putting herself through unenjoyable workouts and unpleasant diets.

In a recent Instagram post, Alex wrote about how much her mindset has changed since reassessing her priorities.

Alex posted two pictures alongside each other, one of her from a while back when she was slightly curvier and then another more recent photo where she’s more lean.

She asked her followers to guess what they thought the main difference was between the two, and her answer may surprise you.

“On the left I was obsessed with calorie counting. I was obsessed with weighing myself and the number on the scale,” she wrote.

“I thought the only way to look good was to eat nothing but salads or maybe nothing at all.

“I’d start unsustainable diets and put myself through boring, time consuming workout programmes that I hated.”

Alex realised that many of her followers had probably felt the same way at some point in their lives, and that some of them possibly still did.

That’s why she felt she had a duty to illuminate common myths about living healthily, including having to eat a restrictive diet and doing exercise that you don’t enjoy.

“You can love exercise and you can eat healthily but love what you’re eating,” she continued.

“I rarely have salads and I regularly eat pasta. I go out for meals, I eat chocolate and pizza and I drink wine.

“Stop listening to the stupid magazines that tell you to try the latest bulls*** diet that involves starving yourself.

“Believe me when I tell you that being healthy and fit will not come from any diet. It comes from a mentality change and from the knowledge that being healthy doesn’t involve cutting out any food group.”

A number of Alex’s followers felt emboldened by her positive message, with one commenting: “This is very similar to my story, too! Until you make being healthy both a mindset and a lifestyle, nothing changes.

“It truly is all about balance.”