Just when we thought we couldn't be more obsessed with Instagram fitness star Anna Victoria, she goes ahead and impresses us again. The personal trainer and creator of The Body Love App has built her platform on loving, honoring, and respecting your body, which fans find refreshing. But recently those same fans have voiced concerns about her apparent weight loss.
In a new Instagram post, Anna addresses those concerns. “…Lately I’ve received comments or DMs from girls asking if I’ve lost weight and saying it upsets them if so. Their reasoning is that they followed me because I have always worked out not to be skinny, but for my health. But that is STILL TRUE.” She acknowledges that she's been working hard as part of her Body Love App creation and testing, and says she's "proud" of her progress. But that doesn't necessarily mean she's actively trying to be "skinny," she says.
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In comments sent to WomensHealthMag.com, Anna Victoria emphasizes that body positivity and fitness are not mutually exclusive. "You don’t have to hate your body to want to make improvements. Fitness is about pushing yourself physically and mentally and there’s nothing wrong with wanting to push yourself in order to meet performance-related goals," she says. "Those goals may reflect physically but that’s just a cherry on top, not the actual end goal. If it were, that’s where I caution against using fitness as a sole means to achieve physical change because usually that change is achieved via unhealthy and unsustainable means.”
She says that she believes healthy self-improvement is always a good thing. “But if you do see physical change through healthy habits, fueling and nourishing your body, challenging your body, AND loving your body through all steps of the way, there can never be anything negative about that. People don’t see your mental state, that’s not something visible to the naked eye, which can be dangerous because you never know where someone is at in their journey. But as long as we are encouraging self-love and healthy habits, and valuing those things over physical change, that’s where true strength and confidence is built. Because you see just how capable you are and how well you’re treating your body. It’s hard to feel bad about a body you’re taking good care of."
In her Instagram post, she went on to assure her fans that she will always be advocating self-love and body positivity. "The problem I find with people saying my progress upsets them is that I don’t believe loving and accepting yourself doesn’t mean you can’t also want to improve in other ways. Just because I’ve been pushing myself in my workouts doesn’t mean I’m no longer an advocate for those things. No matter now I look now or in the future, that will NEVER change. That’s who I am and what I believe down to my core.”
She goes on to encourage women to be proud of their own bodies, no matter what, because: “My body does not set the standard for my own self-love and worth. It doesn’t for me and I hope it doesn’t for you.”
Your body really can do amazing things—here's proof:
Anna has long championed #realtalk when it comes to her body. She’s shown pics of what her belly looked like post-cheat meal to tell followers that one meal will not ruin your progress. Or how it’s all about the photo angle (and a little help from high-waisted pants) for a good pic. She’s even dared to bare her tummy rolls. And through it all, she's tried to be honest about her self-image, her fitness journey, and the body image struggles that many women face.
She's proof that fitness and body positivity truly can go hand in hand, so long as you make consistent efforts to love and respect your body where it's at while striving for self-improvement.
