We’re launching National Workout Buddy Day on March 1! Post pics with your exercise pals (using #NationalWorkoutBuddyDay), and if you tag @WomensHealthMag, we may share your photo.

Yes, 29-year-old Instagram phenom Anna Victoria has a successful workout program (Fit Body Guides). But she didn’t always have the healthiest relationship with food and exercise. “I was disillusioned with the fitness industry growing up,” says Anna, who was raised outside of Sacramento. “People who lived that lifestyle, it seemed they acted like they were better than you because they worked out and ate healthy. I really didn’t subscribe to that type of mentality.”

In fact, she flat-out rejected it, eating fast food three times a day from the time she could drive until her early twenties in college. Then she was hit with GI distress so severe it landed her in the ER. “I keeled over; my digestive system just shut down.” Still, she was so busy working and going to school full-time that she didn’t right her own ship for a few years. But in 2012, when she moved to China with her husband, he urged her: “Okay, Anna, you have no more excuses, you need to start taking care of yourself.”

Without much direct support living abroad, she started an anonymous Instagram page, sharing healthy tips that motivated and inspired her—”but never a photo of me,” Anna adds. A year later, she felt comfortable enough to post a personal transformation picture. Then she got certified as a trainer and launched the brand as we know it today—one that stands out for pulling back the curtain on those “perfect” images so often seen on social media, posting her own “belly rolls” or revealing how certain poses superficially give “Insta-worthy” looks.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BSZieiogZA5/

With her new Body Love with Anna Victoria app, members (or, as she calls them, “Body Love Babes”) get three strength workouts a week and three cardio and ab workouts—each just 30 minutes. “I’m a personal trainer, so I want people to push themselves to be their best. But how that reflects physically is not everything. I believe that you deserve to love your body through all stages of your journey.”

Reality Check

Though Anna owes her career to Instagram, she can’t imagine growing up in the social media landscape of today. “Young girls are looking to influencers and models and saying, ‘I want to look like that. I’m going to do everything to look like that.’ But that’s not what it should be about.” That guiding principle now informs what she preaches and what she posts—helping her followers see through the artificial film to reveal true wellness.

Don’t fall into the “Healthy-Food Porn” vortex.

Scroll through the ‘gram, and it might seem as if people are eating nothing but veggie bowls and smoothies. Hogwash. “I practice an 80/20 approach,” says Anna. “Eighty percent of the time, I focus on fueling my body with whole foods and balanced meals. And the other 20 percent, I enjoy whatever I want.” One of her go-tos? Taco Bell.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bbh-Dzpg7Uz/

Go beyond lip service.

“There’s this big conversation around love your body. And yes, love your body.” But, she adds, it’s not enough to just post feelings about your body. You’ve got to move it and feed it right. “Aim to feel your best. If you’re not feeding or nourishing your body, if you’re not treating it well, I don’t think that is love.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bbr9DUjAzoF/

Shift your thinking about transformation photos.

Anna has admitted on Insta that, at times, she’s been reluctant to share certain pics because of others’ opinions. (“You lost your butt… Your boobs got smaller… I prefer the left,” she writes in one caption, imagining the comments.) “Why do before-and-afters have to be about liking one and disliking the other? Why can’t we appreciate our bodies in both but be proud of the mental, emotional, and physical strength gained in the time between the two photos?”

This article originally appeared in the March 2018 issue of Women’s Health. For more great advice, pick up a copy of the issue on newsstands now!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BdyR8MYg7cG/
Source: Read Full Article