Food Freedom & Body Positivity: Molly Jones

This week I had the absolute pleasure of talking with my long-time friend, Molly Jones, who recently launched a food freedom and body positivity Instagram account called @munchwithmojo (FOLLOW)! Molly just began her junior year at University of South Carolina and she is an instructor for ACE Group Fitness, WERQ, and is certified in Bodyattack & Bodypump LES MILLS workouts. Molly's constantly growing account is filled with inspiring personal stories, fun recipes and more relatable content.

Q&A:

Tell me about your health and wellness journey.

“I would say that I was always pretty active growing up, but I didn’t really care what I was putting into my body food-wise. I joined Midtown (athletic club in Deerfield, IL) my sophomore year of high school and started going to WERQ, which was the first group fitness class I had ever taken and I fell in love. I got to see why people exercise outside of doing their regular sport. I went to the gym a lot but I started to have an unhealthy relationship with working out and with food because I was being so restrictive. I got really caught up in seeing results that would ‘make me happy’ at the time because I was losing weight, but it was in a really bad way. Towards the end of sophomore year I gave up on the mindset to constantly lose weight, so I stopped weighing myself completely and started focusing on fueling myself before and after my workouts. I wouldn’t say that I completely healed my relationship with food and my body until quarantine. I started my food account in February and started seeing people talk about intuitive eating and food freedom. I did the F-Factor diet towards the beginning of quarantine because I saw a bunch of girls in the F* The Freshman 15 Ambassador Program with me doing it. The last straw was when I realized that diets didn’t really work for me personally. They always led to me gaining the weight back, so after that point I decided I wasn’t going to obsessively track my workouts or what I ate anymore. Now I feel like my relationship with food and my body is the healthiest it’s ever been. I was nervous coming back to school because I didn't know if I was going to be able to keep up this mindset and not allow other people’s diet culture, language and restraints impact what I believed in. Right now I’m still trying to figure that out.”

What do you tell yourself when approaching fear foods?

“I would say a big fear food I overcame during quarantine is a bagel. The only time I used to eat a bagel was when kids would bring them for homeroom breakfast in high school. Fridays were my ‘cheat days.’ After eating bagels in homeroom breakfast, I would splurge the rest of the day. What I’ve learned now is that just because I eat one 'nonnutritive food' in the morning, doesn’t mean I need to make the rest of the day look like that too. With overcoming bagels, I started adding them once a week to my lunch and I tried to think about the fact that half a bagel was not going to make me gain weight. I also knew from experience that if I was craving that bagel and didn’t eat it, I probably would end up eating it later when I’m not actually hungry for it.”

Have you ever had trouble with comparing yourself to friends/roommates? If so, what has helped you avoid that mindset over time?

“I think it’s really hard in college, there’s diet culture everywhere. Everyone’s always saying things like, ’Oh, I shouldn’t eat this because I will feel bloated when we go out later.’ Luckily, I’ve never skipped meals and I knew that I could still have fun on weekends without doing that. It definitely was hard for me first semester freshman year. It’s not that other people around me were directly influencing me to look a certain way, but I was really scared of gaining the 'Freshman 15.' I knew that I was away from the people who would pick up on those negative thoughts, so I thought that it was a perfect time to restrict myself from food since I was all alone. I was single at the time and I was really worried about what other guys thought of me. I also was in the instructor training group for teaching group fitness classes at school. In my head I told myself I had to look the part, that I had to be skinny and still strong. After Thanksgiving break that year, I realized I lost weight in an unhealthy way again. Of course, I started eating more and gaining all of the weight back plus some because I was being restrictive. I thought about everything I was doing before and how it was not sustainable. I also realized that I was still making friends and having a good time no matter what I looked like. Starting second semester, I was on my sorority meal plan and had lunch and dinner at the house every day. What was really great about the girls I was hanging out with is that they were always going back for seconds. I think it helped a lot that the people I was surrounding myself with were fueling themselves too without showing major signs of restricting foods.”

As a college girl, how do you find peace in indulging in a fun night out or eating "unhealthy" foods from time to time?

“I recently posted a recipe on my page that I captioned, ‘ULTIMATE memories > food fear TREATS.’ It’s a combination of a bunch of snacks that are considered to be unhealthy. My friend and I put that recipe together because we were talking about how the memories you make in college are so much more valuable and important than what you are eating or drinking. We have an amazing breakfast place by us that has amazing breakfast sandwiches and cinnamon rolls. It is my favorite restaurant of all time, so why would I deprive myself of that happiness and time spent with my friends who I love? I still want to have a fun experience and not care about what I’m eating.”

What about your food and fitness journey are you most proud of thus far?

“I would say that I really love how open I’ve been about everything. A lot of people will DM me and be like, ‘Thank you for keeping it real and showing the good, the bad and the ugly.’ Not everything that you post is always positive. I try to always be a positive person, but I realized that if I don’t show times that I struggle, then people will think it’s unrealistic. The first time that I posted about my food journey is the first time I started seeing how much people appreciated me sharing my relatable story. The more I share, the more people say ‘I went through a similar type of thing’ or ‘Everything you said makes me feel better and not as alone.’ By keeping it real and sharing things that a lot of people didn’t know before, it helps trigger other people and help them on their own journey.”

Molly's journey has opened my eyes to things I didn't even realize about myself, and her honesty has brought so much clarity during this somewhat blurry time we are experiencing at home. Give her a follow, read more about her story and take her kick-ass Saturday morning HIIT classes through Zoom!