We may not always feel 100% confident with our bodies, but when we do, it's important to celebrate those moments — especially if we've worked hard to find body positivity.
Model Monique Robinson took to Instagram yesterday to post a photo of herself, and to open up about what led her to take the picture.
"Hi my name is Monique, and this is what a plus size body looks like," she wrote in the caption. "This is what my plus size body looks like. It's dipped in melanin, marinated with cellulite, and covered in stretch marks."
Robinson explained that over the past two years, she's worked extremely hard to take care of her body after learning that she was at risk for diabetes.
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"I debated really hard on rather or not I wanted to share this picture, but I'm so proud of myself and how I've taken control of my health," she wrote. "I'm hella fucking proud of me, especially since last year I was told I was pre-diabetic which took me a while to digest."
Robinson went on to say that she initially didn't want to deal with her risk because she had believed that she was healthy.
"So I kinda ignored it," she explained. "And decided to self sabotage about the news even though I had made the majority of my progress before I was even diagnosed."
When she thought about her medical history, however, she realized she had symptoms that could have pointed to being pre-diabetic.
"For example, my ankles used to swell really bad," she wrote. "I wish I still had the pictures to show you how huge they used to get. I spoke to my doctor about it and was told to just walk a little more to get more circulation. At the time, I thought okay."
"I've experienced numb fingers before, but only one so it wasn't something to be concerned with, like what!?!" she continued. "I used to be so tired ALL THE TIME, but we thought it was due to me working full-time, overnight and working on my masters degree at the same time. That explained being tired all the time. But at the time I didn't know any better to connect the dots, nor did my doctor."
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According to the American Diabetes Association, prediabetes is a condition in which someone's blood glucose levels that are higher than is standard, but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. Before people develop type 2 diabetes, they almost always have prediabetes. Though Robinson had already developed symptoms of diabetes, many people who have prediabetes often don't have clear symptoms.
After the health scare, she wrote, she began taking better care of herself. While she said that she did lose weight in the process, weight-loss isn't the be-all, end-all. While moderate weight loss can help, according to the CDC, weight isn't always an accurate measure of health. You can be healthy without being thin, and your level of health has more to do with how you treat your body than it does with your body's size.
As for Robinson, she's going to continue to be proud of herself — as she should.