The death of her godfather inspired her to fight off bulimia and anorexia – which saw her binging and purging on a daily basis.
Valentina Homberg, from Wuppertal, Germany, was naturally slim despite her love for food.
But concerned friends and family would constantly comment on her petite body frame.
The 23-year-old’s family stopped making remarks as her body started changing and she started picking up weight after puberty hit.
Missing all the attention she received from loved ones, the student quickly signed up to the nearest gym and only consumed a meagre 150 calories a day.
After her parents noticed her dramatic weight loss, it sparked huge arguments between them.
Things took a turn for the worst when the teen went on an exchange program in America. Valentina started binging so much that she struggled to breathe and would secretly purge by forcing herself to throw up.
“When I turned 16, I went to the US as a foreign exchange student. That’s when I relapsed from anorexia to bulimia.
I felt very lonely because I got treated very bad by my host family so I tried to escape by binging on food,” she says
In 2015 after the 23-year-old moved into her own little apartment, she started obsessively exercising for several hours a day and consumed only a few calories.
Because of her fixation with dieting and working out, she avoided going to all social events and even lied to her family about what she tucked into – by sending them pictures of food she simply never ate. At her lowest, Valentina weighed a mere 44 kg.
“I was depressed, sad, hungry and tired 24/7 but most of all I was lonely, on some days I did not even have energy to get up at night and go to the bathroom,” she says.
But when her godfather unexpectedly passed away, the brunette beauty knew she had to make a drastic lifestyle change.
“I realised that I'm not able to change my past but my future is still open.
I knew he wouldn’t want me to start starving myself again so I immediately stopped starving, binging and purging,” she says.
Valentina is now a fit and healthy 63 kg and learning to love with her new curvier body.
“I don’t care that much anymore.
I feel good because I'm able to love others and be loved by others again,” says Valentina.
Since making her incredible recovery, she now encourages others with eating disorders.
“Recovery is only possible if you want it. You’ll never be able to fully recover when you only want to recover for others.
“You have to realise that being skinny or sick will never make you happy or popular,” she says.