As HELLO!'s resident Body Work columnist, you'll know that I *constantly* bang on about not letting your weight affect your happiness?! Well, here is another bit of proof that I was delighted to hear from a young woman with so many fans and followers. On Wednesday, Love Island star Molly Mae Hague took part in a live Instagram video for her nearly four million followers, showing her and boyfriend Tommy Fury doing a couples workout. And after the exercise, she spoke to the camera about how she was feeling with her body.
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Molly Mae on lockdown wearing her PrettyLittleThing loungewear
"Since coming out of the villa, I've put on two stone," said Molly. "Even though it might not look like it! And that is because I've not trained, I've not watched what I've been eating and I've stopped exercising - before that, I was exercising every day. I just stopped because I had work to focus on."
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And life to focus on, too, right? Because while exercise is an amazing way to keep our mental health in check - and for many, it is vital - doing heavy training every day is intense and can really eat into daily life. Anyway, back to Molly...
"It's fine, I put on some weight, and I always say this to my family: I'm the happiest I've ever been! I'm the happiest I've ever been and it's the most I've ever weighed, so it does correlate," she added.
Molly Mae in the Maldives
Ahhh Molly - if I could hug you, I would! This sums it up, does it not? We do not need to be thin to be happy. Want me to repeat that? We do not need to be thin to be happy.
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Diet culture teaches us that happiness is rooted in losing weight and being thin, and it teaches us that both of those things are the biggest achievements for a human. But real happiness? That's rooted in the meaningful, fulfilling life we've built for ourselves - in our morals, our values and the relationships we've formed and nurtured.
Molly Mae and Tommy Fury during a challenge on Love Island
Molly added that although she's happy with her life - and her relationships - she does struggle with the changes in her body and shared with her fans how she felt on a recent trip to the Maldives and seeing herself in swimwear. "If I'm honest, I couldn't even look at myself in a bikini. I decided to make a change, but quarantine happened and I put it all back on."
Molly, the only change you need to work on, is realising that you're enough. Just as you are.