Cooking influencer Rachel Fong has returned to YouTube after a two-year absence, and she’s opening up to fans about where she’s been.In asix-minute videoshared on Friday, the blogger shared that in preparing for her cookbook,Kawaii Sweet World, during her freshman year of college at Stanford, she “innocently” began dieting with the goal of looking “better” for a photo shoot.“I just had this thought that was like, I bet if I looked better and I lost weight, I could just be a better influencer and sell more cookbooks, and I would just be more successful in my career,” she shared. “This then led me down a path of starting out very innocently sort of just dieting, and then really just ended up transforming into an eating disorder that lasted from freshman year all the way through sophomore year.“Fong, who graduated from Stanford in June, refrained from going into details about her eating disorder because “a lot of disordered eating habits are replicable,” she said.Rachel Fong with Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford on the Today Show in 2018.“But suffice it to say that it was a very hard time, and that I was not eating enough, and I was very tired and very hungry all the time,” she said, adding that while she appeared happy on camera and to friends and family, she was “personally very, very sad.“The baker said that things “turned around” for her at the end of her sophomore year when she met her (now ex-)boyfriend, who she said she was able to open up to. “That made a huge difference in my life,” she said.After the cookbook came out, Fong took time off of YouTube to “re-charge,” calling the time away from content creation a “really, really happy summer.“Rachel Fong.youtubeBy her junior year, theCOVID-19 pandemichad hit, and she and her boyfriend broke up. Feeling like she had no support system in place, Fong turned to a licensed dietician to help her develop a better relationship with food andbody image.“Slowly over time, I worked on building healthier habits, and not being restrictive anymore, and it’s just made a huge difference in my life. It’s saved me so much time and energy,” she said, explaining that focusing on her bigger life goals has helped her overcome restrictive dieting.Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free weekly newsletterto get the biggest news of the week delivered to your inbox every Friday.“I know I have a lot of like, big sister energy going on right now, but it’s really because I hope that I can save somebody from going through a similar experience that I did,” she added.If you or someone you know is battling an eating disorder, please contact the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) at 1-800-931-2237 or go to NationalEatingDisorders.org.
Cooking influencer Rachel Fong has returned to YouTube after a two-year absence, and she’s opening up to fans about where she’s been.
In asix-minute videoshared on Friday, the blogger shared that in preparing for her cookbook,Kawaii Sweet World, during her freshman year of college at Stanford, she “innocently” began dieting with the goal of looking “better” for a photo shoot.
“I just had this thought that was like, I bet if I looked better and I lost weight, I could just be a better influencer and sell more cookbooks, and I would just be more successful in my career,” she shared. “This then led me down a path of starting out very innocently sort of just dieting, and then really just ended up transforming into an eating disorder that lasted from freshman year all the way through sophomore year.”
Fong, who graduated from Stanford in June, refrained from going into details about her eating disorder because “a lot of disordered eating habits are replicable,” she said.
Rachel Fong with Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford on the Today Show in 2018.
“But suffice it to say that it was a very hard time, and that I was not eating enough, and I was very tired and very hungry all the time,” she said, adding that while she appeared happy on camera and to friends and family, she was “personally very, very sad.”
The baker said that things “turned around” for her at the end of her sophomore year when she met her (now ex-)boyfriend, who she said she was able to open up to. “That made a huge difference in my life,” she said.
After the cookbook came out, Fong took time off of YouTube to “re-charge,” calling the time away from content creation a “really, really happy summer.”
Rachel Fong.youtube
By her junior year, theCOVID-19 pandemichad hit, and she and her boyfriend broke up. Feeling like she had no support system in place, Fong turned to a licensed dietician to help her develop a better relationship with food andbody image.
“Slowly over time, I worked on building healthier habits, and not being restrictive anymore, and it’s just made a huge difference in my life. It’s saved me so much time and energy,” she said, explaining that focusing on her bigger life goals has helped her overcome restrictive dieting.
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free weekly newsletterto get the biggest news of the week delivered to your inbox every Friday.
“I know I have a lot of like, big sister energy going on right now, but it’s really because I hope that I can save somebody from going through a similar experience that I did,” she added.
If you or someone you know is battling an eating disorder, please contact the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) at 1-800-931-2237 or go to NationalEatingDisorders.org.
source: people.com
