Molly Sims Says She Was Considered 'Too Fat to Model': 'It Was the Heroin-Chic Era' (Exclusive)

When Molly Sims recently opened up on a podcast about being considered 'too fat' to model in the '90s, she never expected the comment to go viral.

"I was just being honest about the stress I was under during that time in the business, and the expectations put on me," the YSE beauty founder explains to PEOPLE. "I wasn't prepared as a young girl to go through that," she says of chasing an unnatural level of thinness.

"I started right at the moment, the height of 'heroin chic,'" she continues. "It was Kate Moss in her Calvin Klein ads. I had never really focused on [being that skinny] before, so that mindset was really hard for me." She adds, "I tortured myself. I would try so incredibly hard."

Sims, who grew up in Murray, Kentucky, got into the modeling industry while studying pre-law at Vanderbilt University. She says her upbringing had nothing to do with high fashion or being skinny, and it certainly didn't prepare her for what it was actually going to be like.

"I grew up with a very Southern family, and we talked about being smart, not being on a diet. We ate food, and food was community and it felt good and was like home. So when the heroin chic thing was thrown at me it was almost like being a ballerina or an athlete. I had to be so focused to be so thin."

Looking back now she says, "What's sad to me is that when I look at those pictures now, I can't believe I thought I was so heavy."

The mom to sons Brooks, 11, and Grey, 7, and daughter Scarlett, 9, says that for her daughter's sake, she hopes that the heroin chic look never comes back into fashion.

"I love the direction that we're going now," she says on body inclusivity. "I still think we need to do so much work, but beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Beauty is not 6' 10" and weighing 47 pounds. Beauty is inclusive, beauty is tall, skinny fat, red, yellow, brown. Beauty is everything in between. I think that I'm so happy that my little girl, hopefully, will never have to say, 'I grew up in the era of heroin chic.'"

Now, at 50, Sims says does her best to focus on wellness and health instead of eating "rice cakes with bananas."

"I'm conscious and think things through," she says of her relationship with food now. She also loves a good collagen peptide, and takes 20g of Isopure in the mornings in her coffee. "It's flavorless which I like," she says. "I do it every morning and I have noticed a difference in my skin and hair and nails."

She also stays active with working out, switching between HIIT and walking on a treadmill.

"I'll do an infrared sauna, and I like a magnesium tea at night which has been excellent for my sleep and joints. I'll have a superfood green drink. It's more about thinking things through and being conscious, not about starving yourself all day."

She adds, "It's been nice to let that go. Do I still have a weird relationship with food? Probably a bit. But if I want to have the pizza, I'll have the pizza. If I want a glass of wine I have the wine. I don't see depriving myself of food as healthy anymore.