Self Is Removing a Restrictive Meal Plan Thanks to Iskra Lawrence

Iskra Lawrence, the stunning size 14 model and body positivity/eating disorders awareness advocate, is the cover star of the current issue of Self magazine. She also took part in the magazine’s yearly New Year’s Challenge, which includes a fitness regime and a one-week meal plan to help readers get fit quickly.

But many readers took issue with the publication’s meal plan, which is severely prohibitive in terms of calories. The plan seemed to trigger these readers’ eating disorder challenges, and they expressed their concerns to Lawrence and Self editor in chief Carolyn Kylstra directly via comments and direct messages, according to a note Lawrence posted to Instagram. This outcry prompted Lawrence to ask Kylstra for a meeting. Lawrence — who has admitted she hasn’t dieted for seven years but takes great care of her body through healthy eating and exercise — felt strongly that the meal plan was striking the wrong chords with some vulnerable readers and sending an unhealthy message.

“[Kylstra and I] had a meaningful conversation about the Challenge, after which she made the decision to remove the meal plan,” Lawrence explained in her post. Kylstra confirmed this in an essay posted to Self.com, titled “We Hear You.” The note read, in part, “Out of respect for Iskra, her followers, and all of you, we’ve removed this sample meal plan from the Challenge entirely. We’d also like to apologize for having included it in the first place. … We should have approached this Challenge differently, though. In partnering with a body positivity advocate who is a role model to many people who have struggled with and are in recovery from disordered eating, we should have been much more sensitive to this issue. It’s clear that this type of information could be triggering. That wasn’t at all our intention, it’s on us, and we’re sorry.”

Lawrence applauded the publication’s open-minded approach to tweaking its meal plan, writing, “So thank you to @selfmagazine for hearing us – this truly shows the power of our community and the importance of the work the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) is doing. We are stronger together and we are enough!” The model explained that she had decided to be the face of the Challenge because she “wanted to share some of my favourite workout moves with you all that aren’t for weight loss, but to feel healthy, strong and to look after our bodies.”

Lawrence works out three times a day to maintain her hourglass figure, doing boxing, pilates, yoga, and weight training, according to the Daily Mail. And while she enjoys eating things like pancakes, she combines that with healthier fare like green smoothies. “Everything in moderation” is her mantra. She doesn’t believe in a restrictive diet.

Lawrence is one of the lucky ones who — though she’s faced fat-shaming throughout her life — has always had a healthy relationship with food. When she was a teen, Lawrence was a swimmer, and she says to All Day Every Day that she knew if she wanted to be an athlete, she had to eat. “If you can figure out that your body is for more than just what it looks like, that’s a huge step, and I think that is the single reason why I didn’t get an eating disorder.”

But she is extraordinarily empathetic to those who do and did have eating disorders, which is why she feels so strongly about advocating against dieting. “I don’t believe in diets … and would never mean to advocate for them,” she wrote on Instagram.

Kylstra’s decision to remove and rethink the one-week diet is a major step for Self, which is known for its grueling challenges. It marks a sea change in the way media is portraying what a heathy body looks like and how it should be cared for. Kylstra indicated that she’d be reimagining the Challenges going forward, writing in her note, “Our intention with the Challenge, and every Challenge we do, is to offer people new workouts and ideas for healthy recipes. Some people like day-by-day guidance; others prefer to pick and choose what works for them. We try to make our Challenges flexible — we want people participating to be able to modify the meals and workouts to their liking (or follow along with a sample plan, if that’s what they prefer).”

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