Yahoo Finance Jesy Nelson's Raw Post on How She "Mentally Bullied" Herself to Lose Weight Is Important
Jesy Nelson has shared an honest – and vitally important – insight into her frame of mind during a period of intense weight loss. On Instagram, the former Little Mix star shared an old photograph of herself lying on the floor of a gym, with her hands over her face. In the caption, Jesy shares what was going on in her mind at the time, along with a new, healthy perspective on the situation.
'I just saw this picture pop up on my feed and it made me feel so sad,' wrote the singer. 'On the day this picture was taken, I remember going to the gym with my manager and I stood in the mirror and I said, "god I’m so fat I just want my legs to be like this" and I pulled my skin around to try and create a thigh gap.'
Jesy powerfully added, with hindsight: 'I genuinely believed that being skinny would make me happier.'
But it didn't make her happy. In fact, Jesy recalls finding herself in an even worse frame of mind as a result of the intense pressure she was putting on herself to lose weight. 'Even when I got to a size 8 from starving myself, I still wasn’t happy. I mentally bullied myself every day to try to please other people,' she candidly wrote in the caption.
Jesy Nelson has not been shy to share her struggles with body image and mental health in the past. When she took the plunge and announced she was leaving Little Mix, Jesy said at the time she had taken the decision because being in the band had 'really taken a toll on my mental health.' The 'constant pressure of being in a girl group and living up to expectations,' she shared, was 'very hard.'
It seems since leaving the band and allowing herself a little more headspace, the 29-year-old has managed to gain some valuable perspective on the situation. 'It’s taken me 10 years to realise that I’m the only person I need to please,' she wrote in her honest caption.
'As humans, we find it so easy to pay other people compliments but yet we find it so hard to be kind to ourselves because it’s so much easier to pick ourselves apart than to find the things we love about ourselves.'
Jesy went on to urge anyone feeling the same self-inflicted pressure to change themselves for the benefit of others, to be kinder to themselves. 'Please don’t waste years of [your] life seeking approval from others, seek approval from yourself. Be your number one fan. You are the one in control of your happiness and you are the only one of you in this world and that’s pretty fucking powerful!'
Nail on the head.
If you, or anyone you know, is struggling with an eating disorder, contact Beat, the UK-based charity who hope to end the pain and suffering caused by eating disorders.
T: 0808 801 0677
E: help@beateatingdisorders.org.uk, under-18s: fyp@beateatingdisorders.org.uk
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