Lexi Thompson confesses to body image struggles

Lexi Thompson has had quite a year. Her best finishes may not have yielded a win – her best finishes have been 5th at the US Women's Open ($182,487) and T2nd at the Honda LPGA Thailand ($128,770) – but she's never been far from the headlines after taking time off "to recharge her mental batteries" earlier in the year.

This followed some controversial moments involving the rulebook at the 2018 Honda and an armchair TV pundit who cost her a second major at the 2017 ANA Inspiration. Lexi seemed pretty battered and bruised by all of this and you couldn't help but feel very sorry for her. It seemed for a while she couldn't do right for doing wrong. And now she has taken to Instagram to discuss her struggles with body image.

You wouldn't have suspected Lexi had any such issues. Her photoshoot with GolfPunk is the stuff of legend. Lexi acknowledges it might sound "crazy" that she would struggle with body image, but says that she has been dealing with this for a long time.

"So this is a pretty personal post and some people might think it’s stupid or that I’m crazy but I’m going to share it anyway.... one of the biggest issues I’ve gone through is my self image/ body confidence. When I was really young, I just ate what I wanted to, didn’t care about fitness at all or what I weighed. Then as I slowly got into fitness seeing the results, I started getting crazy about it, seeing the attention I was getting, doing certain photo shoots I never thought I would. I was putting my body through brutal workouts twice a day not really eating because I thought that’s the way I would lose weight and weighing myself constantly. I would compare my self to these stick thin or fitness models on Instagram, tearing myself down because I didn’t have the toned stomach or the big butt. As a girl I know body confidence is a huge part of life and what we all go through. You think you’ll be happy once you get this certain body? But will you really be? Maybe more confident and by doing it the right way is how u need to go about it. The only way you’ll ever be truly happy though is if you love yourself first. But what I want to share is that your not alone in any of your struggles. And what I’ve learned is that I’m not going to deprive myself in the one life I get to live, I’m going to enjoy life and my food . You should never compare your body to others it’s a never ending battle of being miserable trust me. Your body is your body, it is beautiful so embrace it."

Related:

Lexi Thompson's GolfPunk photoshoot exclusive