Weight loss advice from a former size 00

It feels like the perfect time to talk about this, because lately it feels like we’re watching the 90’s come back in real time.
And I’m not talking about the music, tattoo chokers, or the butterfly clips. I’m talking about the extreme thinness craze and the “heroin chic” body ideal that so many of us grew up inhaling like secondhand smoke.

If you’re feeling pressure to do something extreme or more drastic because the culture around you seems to be shrinking, here are 5 lessons I learned (the hard way) as someone who “successfully” lost the weight the last time extreme thinness was in and (barely) lived to tell about it.

If it costs you your health or your headspace, it’s too expensive.

I was willing to do anyyything to lose weight - and lose weight quickly. And while I was successful at achieving the goal, I failed to consider the cost. 

I lost the weight AND fractured a hip, my spine, and made my anxiety around food significantly worse along the way.

Sincerely, someone who realized much too late that the cost wasn’t worth it.

If you can’t navigate an unplanned meal out or miss a workout without spiraling, it’s no longer about health. 

You can eat well and move well in an effort to be well, but the second you lose the ability to be flexible or navigate the spontaneity of real life, i

t’s no longer about wellness. 

Sincerely, someone who struggled with disordered eating/exercising but called it “discipline”. 

The way you feel in/about your body doesn’t change simply because the # on your jeans/the scale does.

Weighing less is an external game (“just eat in a calorie deficit”). 

Getting lean, improving health, and feeling good - in your body and around food - is just as much internal as it is external. 

If you don’t do the inner identity/relationship work, you’ll look different on the outside but feel exactly the same on the inside.

Sincerely, someone who refused to run without a shirt on - even as a size 00 - because I still hated my body.

Don’t give up entire food groups to get there.

Because when (not if) you finally realize that all food groups serve an important purpose - it will be harder to re-learn how to eat “off limits” foods without fear than to learn how to eat all foods mindfully in the first place. 

Sincerely, someone who had a panic attack the first time I ate muesli after years of restricting carbs and fat.

Being smaller doesn’t translate to bigger worth, love, or happiness.

In a culture that constantly praises thinness we start to believe that shrinking is our purpose - when it’s simply a distraction from our purpose. 

Smaller doesn’t mean better, and when we fixate on fast weight loss vs. slow and sustainable fat loss, it doesn’t mean healthier or happier either. 

Sincerely, someone who no longer wears a size 00 because I learned that strong and nourished > weak and hungry. 

If the resurgence of extreme thinness is making you question your worth or you’re feeling pressure to “keep up” because people around you are shrinking fast, take a breath and remember, how you lose weight matters.
It matters for your health, it matters for your relationship with food, and it matters for the life you want to live once you get there.

And as always, if you could benefit from support reaching your healthy relationship with food and sustainable weight loss goal in a health-promoting and flexible way (aka. without extremes), I’m here to help.