Victoria’s Secret model quits dieting: ‘It was time to make peace with my body’

'My life is so much more than my jean size'

(Getty Images for Victoria's Secret)

Victoria’s Secret models are lauded for their slim, athletic figures, which are often a result of gruelling workout regimes and pot luck genetics.

However, for 26-year-old Bridget Malcolm, achieving the "perfect" model figure was no mean feat, leading the Australian beauty to quit dieting altogether, according to a candid blog post.

“In August this year I made myself a promise,” she writes, “It was time to make peace with my body.”

Malcolm went on to explain how she threw away her scales in August in a bid to embrace self-love and deleted a series of gym selfies from her Instagram account, which she’d previously have used as markers of “progress”.

“Basically, I wanted no point of reference any more of a time when I was smaller, or larger,” she added.

“I just wanted to stop looking in mirrors and telling myself that I was ‘too fat’, and ‘not doing enough’”.

After 12 years of restricting her food and working out intensely in a bid to “tone up” for the sake of her career, the blonde beauty revealed that she has finally “stopped allowing guilt to exist” and has since rethought her entire approach to diet and exercise.

“I cannot tell you how many times I went to bed with my head whirling,” she said, “trying to get me to latch onto how much I ate at dinner, or during the day, or trying to convince myself to change my diet, start training hard again, start tracking my size, just start doing more.”

Now, Malcom reveals she has chosen to take a more relaxed approach to her fitness regime because “life is way too short to be focused on the exterior”, adding that she doesn’t want to waste any more time worrying about her already-slim figure.

“I never realised how much time and energy I would spend on dieting. I am much freer now, and it is a fantastic feeling,” she writes.

“I wish I had discovered it sooner – but late is better than never. ‘I have gained weight. And I do not give a f*** about it. My life is so much more than my jean size.

“And every day when that voice in my head tries to tell me I am worthless, it gets a little easier to shut it down.

“I am setting myself free slowly.”