This Is Us' Chrissy Metz Opens Up About Her Weight Issues: 'It’s About Progress, Not Perfection'

Throughout her nearly four decades of life, Chrissy Metz has grown to embrace the skin she’s in through adopting an important motto: “progress, not perfection.”

The actress, who stars in NBC’s This Is Us as Kate Pearson, has long battled weight issues, stemming as far back as her childhood. But instead of allowing negative thoughts or naysayers to prevent her from pursuing her dreams and goals, Metz, 39, has learned the importance of progress coupled with persistence.

“If a waiter takes a tray of food and a glass falls and the drink spills, they don’t just throw the entire tray on the ground. You get another cup of whatever you spilled and you keep going,” she says in Good Housekeeping‘s January/February 2020 cover.

“So often if something isn’t perfect, we go ‘I quit!’ That’s not conducive to forward progress, and it’s really about progress, not perfection,” she adds about not losing her spirit when trying to be healthier.

Adds the actress, “I’ve battled weight issues, but I realize that I don’t have to beat myself up if I have XYZ food. Instead, I change my perspective and think, ‘What is it that I’m angry about?’ since we tend to want crunchy foods when we’re angry or ice cream when we soothe ourselves. All these things I’m just trying to be cognizant of.”

RELATED: This Is Us: Chrissy Metz Calls Kate’s Overeating Struggle ‘a Challenge I Understand Personally’

Not so long ago, Metz took a major step in embracing body positivity and practicing self-love. For Glamour‘s November 2018 cover story, the actress revealed that it had taken her entire life to finally feel comfortable enough to wear a swimsuit. “I grew up wearing a T-shirt at the pool,” she told the magazine. “As an adult, I was like, ‘I’m gonna find a bathing suit I like and I’m gonna wear it.’ ”

At the end of June 2018, Metz did just that. While vacationing with a friend in Barbados at the Sandals resort, the actress documented the moment and snapped a photo of herself wearing a black Lane Bryant suit.

Though Metz was proud to shed some of her insecurities, she said other people were also impressed with her decision, but their responses came off in the wrong manner.

“There were people, like, ‘Oh my God, look at you! You know I could never do that,’ ” she recalled to the publication. “It’s a backhanded compliment, but I’m doing what I want to do.”

But even with the success of This Is Us, an appearance in Netflix’s Sierra Burgess Is a Loser, and the 2019 film Breakthrough, Metz continues to receive backlash for her weight.

“People are still surprised that a big girl could be on TV, and it’s like, Ugh, really? Really?” she said. “There’s so much other stuff to talk about.”

RELATED: Chrissy Metz Says Her Stepfather Beat Her and Forced Her to Do Humiliating Weigh-Ins as a Teen

Still, she doesn’t allow the haters to define who she is.

“Those people [the haters] are in the cheap seats; they’re not in the ring with the blood, sweat and tears, and they have no idea what my daily life is like. Let me know when you’ve walked in my shoes, but oh, you’re in the cheap seats,” she tells Good Housekeeping.

“That, to me, is how I sort of reconcile whatever you want to say,” she adds. “It’s absolutely your opinion and your perspective, but it’s not the truth.”