Brittany Snow Used to Obsess Over Her Body: I Was 'Working Out to Be the Size of a Model'

Brittany Snow says it took her years to accept that her “muscular” body was never going to look like the supermodel shapes she saw in magazines.

“I had a big issue with working out and dieting. I wanted to be like the girls I saw in fitness magazines so badly. I thought that was the ideal of happiness,” Snow, 31, told Shape magazine.

The Pitch Perfect 3 star, who opened up to PEOPLE in 2007 about her battle with anorexia, says that she was just fighting her natural shape.

“I used to be frustrated by my body type as a kid. I had muscles without trying and failed when I attempted to lose weight,” she explained.

It was only a year ago that Snow decided to change her mindset.

“When I turned 30, I looked at my life and realized that I’d always been on a diet and working out to be the size of a model,” she said. “I thought, I’m 5’3?, and I inherited my mom’s beautiful muscular body — it’s just not going to happen.”

From there, she revamped her entire lifestyle.

“I began eating well to take care of myself — I’m almost 100 percent vegan, and I’m off dairy and gluten,” Snow said. “I realized that my health and happiness were way more important than being at the gym all the time.”

She’s also limited her use of social media because of the effect it has on her self-esteem.

“I think that as a society we’re always looking to social media to compare ourselves with how other people look and eat,” Snow said. “I put Instagram and Twitter in a separate category in my phone, so I don’t check them all the time and am not constantly aware of what other people are doing. I think people use social media to compare themselves with others too much, and it has really negative effects on the psyche.”

These days, Snow says she loves her shape.

“It’s strong not only physically, but also emotionally,” she said. “Now I’ve come to appreciate the fact that I’m an athlete.”