Embrace curvy bodies because that’s what many women are blessed with. Your curvatures are what make you unique and beautiful. Sadly, for many years the fitness, fashion and modeling industries haven’t necessarily always embraced curvy bodies. Former Sports Illustrated model Kate Upton says she was criticized for a long time for being too curvy. She and many other ladies have felt the unnecessary pressure to lose weight in an attempt to match the ‘skinny model’ body type.
A lot of young girls and women live their lives stressing about the number on the scale, or fitting into a size zero. This mentality is not healthy and shouldn’t be encouraged. Thankfully, role models like Kate Upton are sending out the right message. Kate Upton recently opened up about her experience as a model. She also wants to make sure that her message is heard loud and clear. Rather than focusing on your size every day, wake up focusing on how you feel.
We tend to think inward and live in this state of stress because we think we’re not good enough. I think marketing has played a major role in promoting these thinking patterns. Unfortunately, over time they can and do manifest into mental health and eating disorders. This needs to stop. Kate explains that we need to focus on feeling strong, instead of worrying about looking a certain way or losing weight.
Luckily, times are changing and there are quite a few fitness and health influencers promoting the rubbish nature of crash dieting or restrictive eating. Sometimes, people are even overexercising. These are all issues arising because of this ridiculous pressure to be skinny. Kate believes that more girls need to be aware and that she could have really used the body-positive message when she began modeling. Ten years ago, nobody was talking about self-love and body positivity.
Embrace Curvy Bodies
Eating to feel happy is great. Training to feel stronger is even better. However, doing both in an attempt to drop pounds or get skinnier is not. Doing this can be very demotivating, especially when your body is taking longer to respond than you thought. It’s also not healthy because you end up obsessing over every minor detail in your body. Kate Upton believes in shifting the focus and learning to embrace curvy or not so curvy bodies. It depends on your body type too. (Not everyone is naturally curvy, just like not everyone is naturally thin.)
According to the Independent, Kate Upton started her career in modeling in 2011. She managed to land on the cover of Sports Illustrated’s swimwear issue. Of course, her career catapulted, and she then landed tons of high-profile campaigns afterwards, including covers for publications like British Vogue. She says the times were very different when she started modeling. It was a different time.
In fact, Kate says most people told her she was too curvy. Ironically, nobody even remembers people saying this about Kate back then because our perception of what’s beautiful has changed so much. It’s amazing, and it’s a shift that needs to happen. Kate says she’s happy because she thinks it shows how much the industry has changed.
Kate Upton Wants You To Feel Strong
For anybody who wants to look after their health and fitness. It’s important to note that you’re unique and beautiful as you are. You’re just making mindful decisions to help emphasize natural beauty and gain strength. I like to think of it as a mindset shift from focusing on aesthetics to performance instead. Apparently, Kate says nobody thought to embrace curvy bodies when she started out. She explained that she received criticism for her curvy shape and was told she should try to look more like the other models.
However, she was determined to focus on her health instead. Kate says her health always comes first, despite the comments. She prefers to focus on her mental health and strength training. News reports that she’s making a point to share this important message with her followers.
She says the industry did tear her to pieces and break her self-esteem down. However, it also made her stronger and built her up. She told the Independent that the fashion industry was always obsessed with her dress size. In fact, everything was about her measurements and what she could fit into. This is the quickest way to drag down someone’s ego. You had to be joking if you were to embrace curvy bodies in any kind of way. She says she often gets comments like: ‘Oh, you don’t fit into those. You’re shamed.’
Kate says over time those comments do get to your head. After a while, she really did start to feel insecure about herself.
Put An End To Skinny Standards
Kate calls b******t when it comes to the industry. She says enough is enough. You are a woman and our imperfections are with us naturally. So this tells us to embrace curvy shapes and sizes, rather than shaming them. Weight loss and diet mentality are all constructs that we have created over time.
The supermodel says that this environment is toxic. Moreover, there is an all-too-common notion that exercise is about fitting into a smaller dress size. She told Health that she’s made it her mission to encourage women to focus on feeling strong. Rather than focusing on their weight.
She is doing some amazing work embracing curvy and strong bodies by creating the Strong4Me program. Kate designed the program with her trainer Ben Bruno. We love this kind of strength program because it helps women of any fitness level get stronger. Instead of fatiguing you further, it supplies your body with an energy boost to tackle all the things you want to do throughout your day.
Kate explains that a large portion of the program involves high repetitions of the same exercises. It might seem a little redundant at first, but higher repetitions are Kate’s secret strategy. She says this keeps your attention fixed on the right metrics.
A Healthier Mindset
When we focus on other factors like getting stronger or quicker, we stop concentrating so heavily on our weight. It becomes meaningless to us. It’s a much healthier mindset. In strength training, it’s considered an achievement and an environment where we encourage curvy physiques.
I agree with Kate. She says that you reach your goals when you start focusing on your own journey, what feels best for you, and what you enjoy most. Imagine living your whole life shouting at yourself for the numbers on the scale? Instead, you start seeing the number increase because you’re getting stronger. It’s a healthier mindset and one that took Kate quite a while to develop. If she can do it then so can you.
Can’t fit into a size zero dress? Who cares!? Just go and buy one that fits your body type. Kate told Health that she had been in a very negative mindset for a long time. She doesn’t want other girls to feel this way. That’s why she has just launched a social media campaign using the hashtag #ShareStrong. She uses this campaign to help empower others and spread positivity. It’s a wonderful opportunity for other people to open up and start talking about their feelings, strengths, weaknesses, and experiences.
Embrace Curvy Bodies And Real Photography
Sadly, most images we see in marketing and social media have been manipulated in some way. This does portray a false image and makes us attempt to live up to an unnatural standard. Kate says that’s why she insisted on taking part in a completely untouched cover shoot.
She wanted the photoshoot to be raw and unnatural. Kate explains that doing an untouched shot is a step toward embracing real life. She adds that your goal should be to be the best you can be. It’s not about trying to look like someone else.
Of course, the journey to learn how to embrace curvy shapes is harder said than done. Kate admits it wasn’t an easy decision to go completely unedited. However, she wanted to share a strong message with other women and girls more than anything else.
This is the core message. We haven’t been able to encourage curvy shapes and sizes because of so many years of retouched photo shoots. Many consider this normal. It isn’t. Sometimes we don’t even know when we’re looking at an edited photo. Kate says people are staging Instagram shots and retouching those pictures as well. It’s now the new norm. Unfortunately, too many young girls and guys think that’s how people look. Therefore they think we should look that way too.
This is definitely not an easy process to embrace curvy. However, all the criticism and beauty standards do catch up with you if you allow them to. That’s why Kate only concentrates on health over weight loss. She’s learned to block out criticism and stop comparing herself to others. I think her untouched photoshoot is an amazing way to communicate this to other women and even men. Embrace curvy bodies to put real images into a world that shows a woman looking strong and confident, without manipulation.
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