About Anastasia

👧 Growing Up in the 90s

Like so many of us 90s kids, I spent years feeling uncomfortable in my own skin. Growing up, I noticed I was bigger than other girls in elementary school, and those differences felt huge at the time. The 2000s brought impossible beauty standards, and by age 12, I found myself jumping from one restrictive diet to another (thank God I couldn't stick to them!).

But those extreme diets led me down a challenging path—I developed emotional eating and binge eating patterns that felt impossible to break. I truly believed I could only be loved and accepted if I weighed less. Food became my safe haven, my comfort zone, my escape—and I couldn't let it go.

I threw myself into intense gym workouts, desperately trying to be smaller. I cut calories drastically, sometimes to the point of fainting. I was exhausted, unhappy, and caught in a cycle of self-criticism. Even well-meaning comments from people close to me about losing weight only fueled my negative spiral.

💡 The Turning Point to Sustainable Weight Loss

That moment changed everything. I realized I needed to transform something much deeper than what I ate—I needed to change my entire approach and relationship with myself.

Around that time, I saw an ad for a nutrition course from someone I knew remotely. I took a risk, signed up, and that's where everything shifted. This course was different from anything I'd tried before. For the first time, I wasn't told to cut things out—instead, I learned to eat 3 balanced meals a day! I discovered how to create a healthy plate that still works better for me than meal prep.

I was brave enough to try new foods, and most of them are still in my regular rotation today. But here's what really mattered: I started taking care of myself rather than punishing myself for being human. I started moving my body with understanding and appreciation for what it could do. I explored different types of movement to discover what brought me energy and what drained me.

✨ What I Learned About Lasting Weight Loss

Here's the life-changing truth I discovered: if my desire to lose weight came from a place of self-hatred, I would never truly be happy with the results—and I might not even achieve them. But when my desire came from love, acceptance, respect, and gratitude toward my body, I could create sustainable results and actually maintain them.