It used to be that I would lose my desire to eat when I was very stressed. This meant that in my last year of college, while I was working on my senior thesis, my diet was really restricted. I got into a food and beverage routine that I won’t repeat here because I don’t want someone to use it as a weight loss guide. It’s not that, trust me, it was bad.

The point is that I was stressed and I lost a few dress sizes because I was stressed. No other result of being stressed out of one’s mind will get one praise. Nobody says, “Wow, you’re wearing that mental breakdown so well!”

I will never forget the compliments I got during that time and how messed up they felt to me then. Couldn’t they see something was a little off with me? When one girl in particular told me how fabulous I looked I had had enough. I shot back with something like, “Well, no, it’s not great. I’m not trying to lose weight.” She got the picture.