Fitness and Weight Loss: Instagram-famous trainer Anna Victoria: 'my naked body reminds me that I am human'

The fitness star says living in Europe changed the way she viewed her body.

​Everyone has an opinion about a woman's body. What's fit, what's sexy, what's strong, what's too strong, what size it should be—up top, down below, all around. Enough!

At WH, the only opinion we want to hear about a woman's body is from the owner of that body.

So we passed the pic to eight provocative public figures, from actresses and athletes to a body-positive model and singer. We simply gave them one prompt and then pressed record: "My naked body is..."

"My naked body is... a reminder that I am human, and that I'm perfectly imperfect. And it's my inspiration to keep loving myself.

"The beauty standards that are imposed on us by society seem so strong that women tend to place much more value on their exterior than their interior. We get hung up on how our body looks physically, and it blocks us from loving ourselves emotionally. We need to accept that our differences and imperfections are part of being human and that they're nothing to be ashamed of.

"Having lived in Rome for three years changed my perspective. In Europe, nakedness is not something to be embarrassed about—it's not taboo like it is here; it's just a human body, no big deal. That's helped me open up more and not be embarrassed by my body. But on the flip side, in Italy, the beauty standards are influenced by the modeling industry, so they like girls to be skinny-skinny, and I've always wanted to be curvy-curvy. I'd say, 'I want to get a bigger booty,' and people were like, 'Why are you doing that?' When a girl would compliment me and say, 'Your legs are so skinny,' that was an offense. I'd be like, 'Don't tell me that! I've been working so hard to get muscle in my legs.' But it did help me realize that beauty standards are not universal. They mean nothing. The only thing that matters is how you see yourself."

Anna Victoria blogs at http://ift.tt/2uHFtDN, and her new Fit Body Guide program comes out this fall. She has 1.3 million Instagram followers at @annavictoria.

This article originally appeared in the September 2017 issue of Women's Health. For more great advice, pick up a copy of the issue on newsstands now!

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