Kylie Padilla opens up on recovery from eating disorder

Kylie Padilla (Image: Instagram/@kylienicolepadilla)

Kylie Padilla spoke candidly about her eating-disorder recovery and encouraged the public to be kinder to themselves when striving to look beautiful.

The actress looked back at her struggles with an eating disorder while talking about “the standard of beauty” on her YouTube vlog yesterday, Nov. 30.

“When I was a little girl, my idea of beauty was blonde, blue eyes, tall [and] skinny. That was not me,” Padilla recalled, adding that she did not feel “beautiful” while growing up in Australia.

“Ngayon ko lang nakikita na napaka-unhealthy (I’m only seeing now that it’s so unhealthy) for a young developing mind, for a young developing girl, to see that,” she told fans.

Padilla remembered that she had “such low self-esteem” when she was a child, though she has now recovered from her eating disorder.

“I just felt like I can’t be me. Being me is not beautiful. Naging eating disorder siya (It became an eating disorder) for a long time,” she recounted. “I’m recovered now. For 10 years, I was hungry.”

Padilla also recalled gaining more respect for her body when she got pregnant with her first child, Alas.

“When I got pregnant, I had a reason to eat. I grew so much respect for my body,” she narrated. “Naniniwala na rin ako na (I now believe that) my worth is more than what I look like and how thin I am.”

While she gained weight during her pregnancy, Padilla managed to get slimmer after giving birth. However, being a public figure put pressure on her to strive for what she used to believe as sexy.

“Even though I’m a recovered bulimic, every day is a challenge for me kasi (because) the habits that were formed when I was a kid turned into a thinking pattern and a belief system that I have,” she admitted.

https://youtu.be/fryc7ntgjsE

Padilla reminded fans that the standard of beauty varies between each person. She then urged the public to be “brave” and change how they think.

“Be kinder to yourself and you have to know that your worth is more than your body,” she said. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting to look beautiful. It’s just that sana (hopefully), you do it in a way that it makes you healthier.”  /ra

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