Teen breaks scale’s hold on her mental, physical health

For 16-year-old Mindy Moradi, the start of the COVID-19 pandemic marked the beginning of a year of “living by numbers.”

Mindy, who just finished her sophomore year at Glencoe High School, grew up on a farm with an older brother and sister. At a young age she was tagged with nicknames like “Skinny Minny” due to her small size. Growing up, she felt that she had to keep her body to fit the label.

The challenges of the pandemic had a huge impact on Mindy’s physical and mental health. In turn, she began to gain weight. During a time when many people were facing new normals, constant exercise, daily weigh-ins, and anxious eating became Mindy’s new normal.

“It was a cause-and-effect mentality: If I eat this, I’ll have to do this,” Mindy recalled of her thought process.

After living this lifestyle day in and day out for about a year, Mindy was tired. She occasionally lay on her bed in the dark and stared at the ceiling.

“I was still on the scale,” she said. “I didn’t want to see the numbers on the scale change.”

One day while on a bike ride with her mother, Mindy made the decision to “put the scales aside.”

She no longer wanted to be caged in her own thoughts. After a year of weighing herself daily, she Mindy decided to stop.

But this was not an easy transition. It took months to reschedule, she said. She did it on her own.

Mindy started by converting her goal of weight loss into one of gaining muscle mass. Her exercise focused more on strength, which helped her heal. She also discovered different ways to distract herself from the anxiety associated with eating.

“The biggest thing that helped me was having sleepovers with my friends again and living more freely,” she said.

Today, Mindy still finds herself indulging in occasional thoughts related to anxiety about her weight. But as Mindy reflects on the hardships of the past, her perspective has evolved: Beauty isn’t about body shape, it’s about personality.

And Mindy hopes that other people who struggle with their body image can find their freedom.

“It takes a lot of work to live freely again,” he said. As her health began to improve this year, she described feeling as if she “has lifted off a cloud.” “Now I can see the sun,” she said.

– Sophie Cadran, Skyview High School

This story was produced by journalism students as part of the Institute for High School Journalism, an annual collaboration between The Oregonian/OregonLive, Oregon State University, and other Oregon media organizations. For more information or to support the program, go to oregonlive.com/hsji.