Is it a unhealthy mentality to want to be thinner?

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  • Congrats on your weight loss. You're doing great. I bet you feel much better now. That means a lot!
  • I have had disordered eating since I became aware of calories and the fact that I was chubby around age 10. My best friend is the whole world is anorexic, she was pretty severe in high school, then got on drugs to get even smaller, then gained about 30 lbs in rehab and now, after a couple of years of being better, she's lapsed back into anorexia. I also have relapsed recently. I lost a bunch of weight (avatar picture is me at my low, not super low, about 170 but wayy smaller than I am now). I honestly think i gained my weight back because i never got to a good place with the way i think about food, and i restricted a lot, basically not eating most days. That's completely unsustainable, and the trouble with that kind of weightloss is that you don't actually learn how to eat healthy or form healthy eating habits. This time around, after hitting my highest weight and leaping back into dieting, i was restricting so much that i would get freaked out because i was starving and i would binge. Then i would purge. Finally, after several days of this, i just kind of shook myself. I'm doing it right this time, because this is for life. If i were you i would start educating myself on good nutrition, start eating three meals a day if veggies and lean meat and calorie counting (i stay under 1400, there are websites where you can plug in your height, weight and activity level and they'll tell you what you need to eat to gain, maintain or lose). And the hardest part- don't freak out if you gain 5 lbs or so at first. When you starve your body, your lower your metabolism a lot, which is why you say you could not eat all day and still not lose. You have to readjust your body and ease yourself into healthy, normal eating, and you may see an initial gain but that five-ten lbs will be really easy to lose compared to gaining everything back because you've been walking an unsustainable tightrope. Your body will hold on to every calorie at first, but that's temporary. You've done a great job losing the weight, and now its time to focus on getting healthy, which is going to be a whole separate journey for you, but is more important than the number on the scale.
    Also, i too have exercise induced asthma, and cardio is difficult for me, so I focus on low-impact strength training such as yoga. I have a book that contains a bunch of poses and a 21 day plan that I got for 25 cents at a used bookstore, or you could check out videos on YouTube. you'll be amazed at the toning. Good luck honey, you can pm me if you ever need to talk. You have done an amazing job losing the weight, and if you can do that I believe that you can do anything you set your mind to.