When I was a young girl, I lost a lot of weight over one summer - involuntarily - and was just really depressed and sad. There was nothing I could do to gain weight. I would look in the mirror and call myself disgusting every day.
As a girl, the thought of gaining weight wasn't easy, but when I thought as an actor, I was very sure. That gave me the confidence, and I started training myself to gain weight, and then, as planned, I lost weight.
There was a time in my life where I was very depressed, I had lost all self-esteem. I came to a point where I couldn't even look at myself in the mirror, I had gained weight.
I would like to say this for the record: that I am not trying to lose weight or gain weight. I am just trying to be the best version of myself, and that's really important.
Until I got the weight off, there was something inside of me that said, 'You hate yourself.' You get too depressed over the weight to really work on this. For whatever reason, I had to take the weight off to do this work.
I didn't think I was fat. I just thought I didn't need to gain any weight. But I would drop weight and then I would be comfortable with that number. Then I would lose more weight and that would become my new number.
From 1997 through 1999, I had gained so much. People don't realize how something like weight gain can make you sad. Losing weight has changed my life. If you can take control of your life, you can lose weight.
I used to be really cute. I could send you earlier photos where I'm stunning. But I've gained about twenty pounds over the past two years, and the more weight I've put on, the more success I've had. If you drew a diagram of weight gain and me getting more work, a mathematician would draw some conclusions from that.
The director of The Sopranos told me that, if I wouldn't gain weight, I would lose my job. I didn't look like the girl who ate pasta all day. This was an extra stimulation to fight my eating problems.
If someone had to lose weight, I would tell that person to lose weight. Lose some weight, why can't you take care of yourself. When I say this, the person might think, 'Look who's talking,' but I would reply, 'I'm a boy and you're a girl.'
I'm a real girl. I get it. I gain weight, I lose weight. My styles change.
Once you get depressed, you don't really feel like doing anything. You're kind of discouraged about yourself, and then the weight gain, too, or that makes me more depressed.
MYOB - mind your own body. It's important because I don't happen to have the kind of body that we usually see on television and in films. I am plus-size. I have dark skin. And I am 100 percent beautiful. But I get a lot of flak - oh, you should lose weight. And now that I have lost weight - and I lost weight for health reasons - I get, you look good but don't lose too much weight because your face is starting to sink in.
For weight gain, one must do cardio in the evening and for weight loss, in the morning. So, while gaining weight, I did weight training in the mornings and light cardio in the evenings.
A photograph doesn't gain weight or lose weight, or change from being happy to being sad. It's frozen. You can use it, then recycle it.
Anita Johnston, Ph.D., author of Eating in the Light of the Moon, taught me to look in the mirror with curiosity rather than fear. So I may look at my reflection and think, 'That's interesting. I wonder why my body seems bigger today than it did yesterday. Maybe it's water weight. Maybe it's my outfit. Or maybe my eyes are just playing tricks on me.' I know it's not possible for me to gain a noticeable amount of weight overnight, so I will go no further than that. I move on with my day without skipping a beat-and definitely without missing a meal.
Running is what keeps my weight down. I have to stay active or I could easily gain weight.