‘I was taught that food is the enemy’
Love Island’s Shaughna Phillips on the moment she snapped out of diet culture and finally began feeling comfortable in her own skin
Talking to Shaughna Phillips, she’s all about body confidence and embracing “what you’ve got”, but the road to self acceptance hasn’t been a simple one for the former Love Islander.
In a candid chat, Shaughna, 28, reveals how she was suffering with body dysmorphia during her time on the hit ITV show in 2020 and that she’s only just ditched the diet she’s been on since she was a teen.
“From the age of 14 or so, I don’t think I’ve been off a diet,” she says. “From a young age I was taught food is the enemy. The less I ate, the better. If I had hardly anything, that was a good day. I would go on the treadmill and if I’d lost 500 calories, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m back to zero because that’s all I’ve eaten today.’”
Other “terrible eating habits” included having an ice lolly for breakfast and a quarter of a ham sandwich for dinner. If she ever felt hungry, she would have a cherry drop.
“Or I would carry around, like, a chocolate bar in my bag. If I ever felt very faint I’d have a bite to keep me conscious,”she says.
When her dad Eddie died from cancer in 2016, Shaughna used her food “obsession” as a way to cope.
“Food was something that I knew I could control when a lot of things in my life I couldn’t,”she says sadly.
Shaughna finally felt that she could “snap out” of her unhealthy habits when she started to lose consciousness through lack of food.
She explains,“I got to a point where I was too skinny and I realised, ‘Wow, this is what I thought I wanted my entire life and I’ve got it now and it hasn’t made me happy at all.’”
Shaughna gained about a stone when she appeared on Love Island then another stone during lockdown.
“I definitely had body dysmorphia on the show. I was so insecure,” she says.“But when I look back, I had nothing to worry about at all.”
Luckily, she’s in a better place now and has been working on changing her relationship with exercise, food and her own body.
Shaughna’s mission is to help others feel the same way with her new wellness app, BeYou With Shaughna. The plan has three phases, Be Fit, Be Healthy and Be Strong, that get progressively harder. She says it’s about “putting the fun back into working out”.
“With every phase, we will add additional mindset tips. People don’t realise that you need to train your mind as much as you need to train your body,” she explains.
With her new-found confidence, Shaughna adds, “It doesn’t matter what size I’m wearing, it’s about how I feel.”
Amen to that, Shaughna!
Download the Be You With Shaughna app or visit thebeyouplan.com