'I've gained 5 dress sizes but I will never diet again thanks to stopping behaviour'

Viral sensation Sophie Huges has opened up about her journey with body confidence - and insists women 'wear the bikini' and stop caring about what others think
-Credit:Logan Gray Photography


A woman, who once had an obsession with dieting and punished herself for gaining weight, has candidly shared her journey after gaining five dress sizes and learning to lover her fuller figure.

Sophie Hughes, , who is a Manchester-based model, spent years in the clutches of diet culture. She was weighing herself daily and used exercise as a form of punishment and scrutinised everything she ate.

Sophie revealed: "I used food as a punishment, I used exercise as punishment and there was over a decade of my life where I analysed every single thing I ate and hated myself on the deepest level."

ADVERTISEMENT

Her battle with self-confidence also took a nosedive after she underwent surgery at 25; she donated part of her liver to her infant nephew and was left with a prominent scar and dramatic body change. She went from a size 6 to a size 16 in 18 months, she said. "I hate my body so much," Sophie confessed.

READ MORE: Manchester mum-of-two affords five holidays a year – and shares how you can too

Sophie Hughes
Sophie now accepts her curves -Credit:Logan Gray photography

Sophie quickly gain recognition online and began working as a curve model. Sophie told The Mirror: "The response was overwhelmingly positive, I got scouted as a curve model and started shooting global lingerie campaigners alongside social media collaborations. It made me feel so positive that it snowballed from there!"

She added: "I started modelling at the age of 15 and struggled with disordered eating, diet culture had me in its grips and if you’d told me I would one day be sharing my cute little belly I'd have laughed in your face."

Viral sensation Sophie Hughes has opened up about her journey with body confidence - and insists women 'wear the bikini' and stop caring about what others think
Sophie stopped punishing herself -Credit:Logan Gray Photography

The woman, who has a new found confidence, reflected on how far she has come. She explained: "When I was younger I weighed myself multiple times a day, my entire self worth was based on my body and how it looked that day. I used food as punishment, I used exercise as punishment and there was over a decade of my life where I analysed every single thing I ate and hated myself on the deepest level."

ADVERTISEMENT

Contrasting to now, where she's stopped that behaviour, she added: "Now I wake up every day and there's peace, I don't love every inch of myself but I am at peace, I hand on my heart genuinely just don’t care anymore. I realise, finally, that there are so many more interesting and incredible things about me than just the way I look."

How Sophie found her confidence

Sophie, who now hosts talks where she helps others improve their confidence and way they look at their body, says she tries to focus on eating foods that make her feel good. "I move my body in ways I love and I allow myself to just be - I feel so free," she added.

But she admits that it is a long and ongoing journey. Sophie, who says people shouldn't compare their body to when they were a teenager, said: "You don't just wake up one day and love yourself. I had therapy, I journaled, I focused on gratitude, I used positive psychology hacks to rewire my brain. I learnt how to be kind to myself.

"I started dressing to compliment the body I have and not the body I wanted. I followed people who looked like me. I unfollowed anyone I compared myself to in a negative way. I focused on all the things my body can do, instead of just how it looks."

ADVERTISEMENT

Sophie says Simply Be is her favourite fashion site as sizes range from a 10 to 32. She describes the clothes as "always flattering, always true to size".

Issuing a message to anyone who is struggle who thinks altering their body is the answer, Sophie said: "You can not hate yourself into a body you love and self acceptance doesn't exist at the end of an appearance based goal. What I mean by that is losing six pounds, getting a boob job, doing 10,000 squats, they're not actually the answer."

She concluded: "For as long as your self worth is based on the way you look you will never learn to accept yourself. You have to figure out how to accept yourself in the now. That's not to say you can’t have goals to lose weight for your health, it’s just to say that even then, your body is still the least interesting thing about you."

The candid woman has launched a Body Confidence course for anyone who may be struggle.

Do you have a story? Get in touch at Lucy.Marshall@reachplc.com.

READ MORE: The 65p household staple that will de-ice slippery driveways in minutes