Demi Lovato Just Got Real About Body Positivity and Self-Esteem

Anyone who follows Demi Lovato knows she’s passionate about health: She speaks openly about living with bipolar disorder, talks herself up in the mirror to boost her self-esteem, and shows off her badass jiujitsu moves on Instagram.

But her path to self-love hasn't been easy: She opened up to Glamour last year about her journey and how changing the way she looked at food and exercise helped her to build self-esteem. "Someone said to me recently, 'You wouldn’t put diesel in a Bentley,'" she said in Glamour's November 2016 issue. "When you treat your body like a Bentley, you value yourself and you start to look at your body differently. I work out every day or six days a week—that’s what I need to stay ­stable up here. [Points to her head.]"

Although it's easy to get caught up in the physical results of working out, Lovato said she's actually a fan of how the endorphins released during exercise help her mental well-being. “It’s knowing how great I’m going to feel after—it helps me throughout the day,” she told People.

And if there’s something she isn’t loving about herself, she doesn’t let it get her down.

“I know I’m doing everything I can to take care of myself. If there’s something about my body that I don’t like, I remind myself that it doesn’t define who I am,” Lovato added. “The more you tell yourself that you’re beautiful, the more you start to believe it.”

Lovato isn't the only celebrity who loves the mental benefits of exercise: Back in 2015 Lena Dunham said her newfound love for running has helped her OCD and anxiety. "When it became something that actually gave me pleasure, I was shocked. Also, endorphins are real. You run with someone for an hour, you feel pretty good. Running for an hour does not make you feel worse," the Girls creator told ESPN.

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