Taking to social media, Olympian weight-lifter Yazmin Zammit Stevens opened up about her relationship to her weight, mental health and career in weightlifting.
‘It’s been 1 year since I made the decision to gain weight. I had been cutting weight to fit into a lower weight class for YEARS… cutting is what had to be done to get to where I wanted to be and so I have no regrets at all.’
However, ‘this is a very common situation weight category athletes find themselves in’, and this led to her reaching a bodyweight her body ‘did not like’ and ‘could not function properly’.
‘Summer 2021, my mental health reached an all time low, with a lot of the cause being my terrible relationship with food. I found that my happiness had completely started depending on what number was on the scale that morning.’
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People started to describe her as moody, unsociable and angry, prompting the decision to take a break from weightlifting. Gaining weight felt worse at first, she said.
‘But eventually I got my period back (after almost 2 years), I started having more energy to meet friends and socialize. I started having more energy to work more too… and most importantly… I started feeling like myself again.’
‘Now I’ll happily go to the gym in shorts and a sports bra and not think twice about it.
I’m so proud of where I am mentally now, and I truly hope it keeps getting even better.
To anyone dealing with anything similar, be patient. It sometimes gets worse before it gets better. I never thought I’d see the day were my thoughts during the day didn’t just surround what I weighed and what I’ll eat’, she concluded.
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