Model Behavior

This is an excerpt from a huge nutrition project I had to do last year describing why I was interested in it becoming and RD. I think this really sums up my feelings on things and ties in my experience with modeling:

The good, the bad, and the dangerous

During my stint in the modeling industry I saw, heard, and experienced my fair share of “diets”. Some were wonderful, energizing, and well thought out; some were poor and completely unbalanced, right on par with the average American diet; and some were just outright dangerous, even teetering towards the edge of eating disorder.

There was Olga for example, a beautiful 16 year old Cuban girl who made tons of cash working commercials and catalogues for big names like Target and Sears. Olga had a strict diet of no eating after 2 pm. She would allow herself to eat whatever she wanted during the morning hours of the days: pizza, hoagies, chocolate, fast food, and as long as she stopped eating at 2 pm she figured that everything would be digested and out of her system before the next day began. Now I will admit that she was a trim, beautiful girl, but clearly this is not the way to treat your body. Olga was staying slim because she simply wasn’t taking in enough calories to gain anything. Although eating pizza three times a day will surely pack on a few pounds, one slice a day just won’t do it. Not only can going for so long without eating trigger imbalances in your digestive tract and cause your metabolism to slow down, but the lack of nutrients she was getting from the few foods she did eat really wasn’t giving her the energy she needed to live the intense model lifestyle. Unfortunately I often found her getting her energy from unhealthy sources such as caffeinated colas and energy drinks after her limited caloric intake had worn off for the day…usually sometime around 4 pm.

Maybe this diet was working for our good friend Olga for the time being, after all younger people seem to have a better time running of junk foods then people in there 20’s and older, but I guarantee that this diet will eventually catch up to Olga. Her gorgeous 16 year old complexion and 95 pound figure will never survive with that kind of abuse.

An up and coming editorial model named Colleen was the first person to make me really analyze what I was eating each day. Her father was a registered dietitian and she was probably one of the biggest health nuts I have met to date. While other girls in the model apartment stuffed their suitcases with clothing and mementos of home when traveling, Colleen traveled with stockpiles of teas, herbs, stevia (a plant derived calorie free sweetener), protein and nutrition bars, powdered drink mixes, and bottles and bottles of vitamin and mineral supplements. In the few months we shared a room I don’t think I saw her eat anything accept raw fruits and vegetables, steamed salmon and tuna, sushi, brown rice, green salads with fish oil as salad dressing, and hummus.

Although incredibly healthy this diet is a bit too strict for my taste; but listening to her describe the benefits of everything she ate made me realize that knowing how what you’re eating really affects your body makes it easier to make healthy choices. People always want a reward for there “suffering” and she knew exactly what her rewards were. She once admitted to me that she actually couldn’t hardly stand the taste of salmon (which she ate about 4 times a week), but knowing the difference it made in her skin, hair, nails, energy, and overall health made it completely worth it. Colleen confessed that when she was younger and her father would try to talk to her about healthy eating, she would brush him off and go get a candy bar or other calorie packed nutrient lacking food. It wasn’t until she got older and really started to understand how much effect what you eat has on a person that she adjusted her eating habits.

This paper was about 25 pages long and included a lot of great stories about living in NY and trying to stay healthy (and sane) in that environment, so I will probably be posting more from it…stay tuned!!!

And since I don’t like posts without pictures, here’s a random one for you. This is a picture of one of the most beautiful spots in New Zealand that I visited last summer.