food combatting guilt. CARLY

words: Chloe Hechter | design: Alana Spiro kind of thing in high school. And so I always struggled with body image and I found that the worse my body image got, the worse my restrict-binge cycles got. And then in college, I developed like a full blown. eating disorder in my junior college, now studying abroad. Those were kind of like the two main times when I really struggled. And then as I got out of college, I kind of really learned intuitive eating a lot more and started to like, learn more about just like foods that I liked and didn’t like and kind of rediscovered food again, but mainly like my entire life. I grew up struggling with food issues.

CH: How did college change your relationship with food? for better or for worse? how did you deal with these patterns and struggles during this time?

CW: College was interesting because it really depended on who I was surrounded by. So, like, in the beginning of college, I had two best friends who literally taught me to have a healthier relationship with food. Like I literally like went into college thinking I was only allowed to eat like half of a portion of everything, and then they were like, you know, you can, like, eat more than that and like, they would like to teach me that you can eat whatever you want, like, have a healthy relationship with exercise and then a couple years later, I had different roommates and they made me have a very unhealthy relationship with food and kind of sent me into a depression. So I think in college, it really depends on who you’re surrounded by.

CH: The theme of this issue is “guilty pleasures.” How can we change the dialogue surrounding food being a “guilty pleasure” or having guilt for eating certain things?

CW: I just think it’s all about not labeling foods as good or bad. It’s just like all food at the end of the day, it all fuels your body. At the end of the daY and not kind of like realizing there’s food for your body and there’s food for your soul. That’s kind of how I like, talk about guilty pleasures. It’s not like a guilty pleasure. It’s more. It’s for your soul. Like when you’re eating a little too much chocolate or like, when you’re, like, having a slice of chocolate cake, you might not be hungry for it, but it fills you up in a different way and that’s OK. So I think we need to learn that it’s OK to have a balance of both and just to not label things as good or bad, it’s all food at the end of the day.

CH: You’ve been given a platform to share your journey. How has being an influencer impacted your stance on your relationship with food and your body?

CW: I mean, I think it holds me accountable. Like if I wasn’t an influencer and I didn’t have other people kind of like relying on me and saying that I’m helping them and their recovery, I feel like and that’s maybe like. A weird answer, but I feel like I would slip back into old ways or I would be more likely to slip back into old ways and people hold me accountable for that. And then on the other hand, it’s like dealing with body image. It becomes very difficult being an influencer like I get called fat and stumpy, and there’s a lot of body shaming on the Internet. It makes me want to do even more, like it just motivates me and like, puts more of a fire under me to, like, continue doing what I’m doing.

CH: Do you often find yourself comparing your experience to that of other young women and creators? How do you think we can combat that?

CW: I think no matter what, as a woman, you’re always going to deal with self comparison, especially like in a position that I’m in, where I’m on social media all the time. I think one is like not being on social media constantly because I think so much like comparison happens in person. But I think a lot of it happens because. We’re constantly scrolling and looking at other people and kind of like deep diving into that. Like it’s not just like we’re looking. We’re like, really, like staring for a while. So I think like, just getting off social media, not like making sure you’re, like, limiting your screen time and then also just like surrounding yourself with people that you don’t feel like you need to compare yourself if you have friends that are like super accepting and don’t talk about that like food and body and fitness, you’re not going to find yourself comparing. Like if I had friends who were constantly being competitive with food, I would find that I was comparing myself more, so I think it’s really like who you surround yourself with and like you have control over your environment. So take advantage of that.

CH: What advice would you give your younger self? How can our generation adopt a new mentality about food and our bodies?

CW: the advice I would give to my younger self is to stop obsessing and enjoy because you realize as you get older and this might sound dark, but as you get older, you only have more problems. You only have to deal with more in life. So it’s like when you’re young, when you’re in college and you literally have so much time to just, like, discover yourself and have fun and like, enjoy that like your body does not determine how much fun you can have. Like, don’t let that like you going on spring break and feeling self-conscious about your body stop you from enjoying every moment because life is short. Like really. We need to be less attached to their bodies, like we need to put less emphasis on body image. Like I think our generation, especially college age and high school age, is just so consumed with looks. And I think the best thing you can do is to realize that there is more to life than how you look and what your body looks like. And that comes back to like, this whole movement of body neutrality instead of body positivity like it’s really about just taking the emphasis off what you look like all the time and realizing that you provide value to this world in different ways. Like I’m being a good person by helping others by being a good family member.

Carly’s insight and positive outlook has given her not only a platform, but a new sense of self-love and comfort in her own skin. She hopes to continue to use her influence to uplift and inspire the next generation of young people to be easier on themselves.