When it comes to judging appearances, a lot of us have this misguided idea that being skinny is the same as being healthy. We glorify celebrities with tiny waists and pencil-thin legs, and judge ourselves in comparison to people who are slimmer than us. But having a petite body doesn't always mean that a person is leading a healthy lifestyle. In fact, sometimes it's an indication of the complete opposite.
Johanna Sophia, a 23-year-old former bodybuilder from Toronto, Canada, used to have a figure that many would consider enviable. She was thin but muscular, and weighed just 117lb.
However, she achieved her look through obsessive exercise - sometimes working out three times a day - and, even worse, through purging herself of any food she'd eaten. At the time, she thought she looked great; but, after a while, her lifestyle started to take its toll, and Sophia realized that she wasn't actually being healthy at all.
"In my first year of competing, I knew I needed to eat a whole lot less and do cardio up to three times a day," she said. "I developed an eating disorder, bulimia. Eventually, I realized that I needed to stop but I was so deep in the competition world and the superficial bubble that it took a long time to figure it out."
She continued:
"At the worst of my eating disorder, I was super-light and was making myself sick at least once a day.
"I was consuming the low-calorie diet that my coach put me on but also was binge eating junk food - whatever sugary or fatty food I could get my hands on.
"The fixation caused me to constantly pick out the imperfections all over my body, I always felt like I wasn't enough or didn't measure up."
Thankfully, Sophia finally realized that - while she might have appeared healthy from the outside - her lifestyle was doing her far more damage than good. And so she decided to change.
After quitting bodybuilding in 2014, Sophia made the first step towards achieving a healthier, more curvaceous body: the 100-day squat challenge. The challenge changed her figure substantially, but also helped her to feel more comfortable in herself.
"I ended up increasing my squat 1RM from 225lbs to 320lbs in just 70 days, and with that came an extra three inches on my butt," she said. "People would call my rear a 'Thanksgiving table' because it stuck out so much."
But she prefers it that way.
"When I used to compete people saw me as ripped and disciplined, but I felt awful and looking back now, all I see is how unhappy I was compared to how happy I am now."
Sophia now weighs in at a much healthier 145lbs, and explains that her healthy lifestyle is now about balance rather than an extreme approach.
"For 80 per cent of the time, I'm eating healthy and working out, doing things that will keep my body alive and the 20 per cent is eating what I truly enjoy or while socializing, I'm not afraid to indulge anymore.
"What I am mindful of is keeping my protein high, healthy fats moderate and carbohydrates complex - meaning I get the majority of my carbs from foods like sweet potatoes, quinoa, rice and others.
"As a result of all these habits and this free way of living and eating, I can say that I pretty much never crave anything, and I feel more healthy and energized."
Since changing her lifestyle, Sophia now works as a personal trainer, and uses her own experience in order to motivate others to sustain a healthy, productive attitude to fitness and body image.
