Adriana Lima's Victoria's Secret Preparation

From The UK Telegraph “It is really intense, it’s not really the amount of time you spend working out, it’s the intensity: I jump rope, I do boxing, I lift weights, but I get bored doing that. If I am not moving I get bored very easily.” She sees a nutritionist, who has measured her body’s muscle mass, fat ratio and levels of water retention. He prescribes protein shakes, vitamins and supplements to keep Lima’s energy levels up during this training period. Lima drinks a gallon of water a day. For nine days before the show, she will drink only protein shakes – “no solids”. The concoctions include powdered egg. Two days before the show, she will abstain from the daily gallon of water, and “just drink normally”. Then, 12 hours before the show, she will stop drinking entirely. “No liquids at all so you dry out, sometimes you can lose up to eight pounds just from that,” she says.

After reading this I'm more than shocked. If it takes nine days of protein shakes and no solid food, followed by half a day no water whatsoever so that a genetically advantaged 1.78m tall model with the measurements 86cm-64cm-89cm (bust, waist, hips) can 'prepare' for the Victoria's Secret show, I suddenly don't feel so bad about how I look in a bikini. How are other women without legs that go for miles supposed to fair in this world if Adriana Lima has to endure this to appear on the runway in lingerie? How is any person with a normal build (or life) supposed to compare? And when I hear men judging women's bodies (when are basically in underwear on the beach) I wish they knew the unrealistic expectations placed on models who just built differently to the rest of us, never mind on the average female.  

After considering this, I longer care about looking 'good' on the beach so a hot guy can check me out, I'd rather not be speaking to the hunk who's spent hours in gym honing his biceps if he's going to baulk when I purchase an ice cream or say I'm off to Wimpy. And when I see photo's of myself I where my upper arm is the width of my face, I won't feel nauseous and ashamed anymore, I'll remember gin and tonics with my friends on Friday followed by an amazing pizza at 2am, I'll remember lying in bed late instead of doing to an 8am gym class on Sunday morning, I'll remember my mother's amazing homemade cannelloni. I'll remember that I don't just chose Life, I chose Joy