Anfisa Chekhova: no one ever said: “You are so fat, I will not meet with you”

– For many years I hated my body, I had complexes about the figure, size, weight. It annoyed me that with my 90 kilograms I could not wear beautiful things. I did what I did: I sat on all kinds of diets, drank Thai pills that were incompatible with health (because of them, I planted the vascular system), did unloved sports, even ran, although I hate it, went to massage, body wraps – in a word, I did everything, what is possible, except for liposuction, because, in principle, an opponent of operations. And even then, when I tried to lose weight, plastic was not yet so widespread. Losing weight from a simple diet with my history was impossible, I had to starve myself. I suffered from bulimia, became angry from it, felt unhappy.

I don’t remember the moment I lost 30 kg

But then I decided that I no longer want to endlessly sweat about the figure, deprive myself of pleasures, I realized: I have one life, and it was given to me for something more than for constant worries about being overweight. She began to work on herself, took up psychology, studying her psychotype and was able to accept and love herself for who she is.

My lifestyle has also changed. I stopped using sugar, foods with yeast, fried, fatty foods. Gradually gave up meat, which kills us, makes a woman aggressive. It was simple: I never really liked it. Now I don’t force myself not to eat such products, I just don’t want to, I deliberately stopped loving them. And I do this not because I have willpower (I trained it as a child with diets), but only from a kind attitude towards myself.

I don’t remember the moment when I realized that I lost 30 kg because I was not already fixated on weight. I was carried away by my inner stories and did not pay attention to what was happening to the figure. Consciousness has changed, and the parameters have become different. Gradually things became great for me. When I began to fit into pretty clothes, which were small before, of course, I was delighted. The main pleasure was being able to wear pants. Being full, I felt uncomfortable in them, but now I can’t get out of them.

I used to be afraid that after my small victories over myself I would return to my previous form. Now there is no trace of fear, I have generally weakened my control over weight. Now I do not fight with the body, I, in principle, do nothing forcibly. When you force yourself, you are afraid that you will fail. I do not lose heart, because I do not keep myself in tight-knit gloves. My body is not a dog, not a horse that I am raising, it is my friend. And he is comfortable in the mode that was offered to him. I clearly know: the way I now eat, live, will not allow me to return to my previous forms, besides, I accepted myself in the weight that I previously considered great. I’m not scared: we swam, we know.

Me and the regime are incompatible things

For four years, it has acquired its own traditions, chips, I like to take care of myself. I eat right, although I often indulge in all sorts of goodies that I like. I eat when there is time. I realized long ago that I and the regime are incompatible things. That’s the same with sleep, although the endocrinologist advises me to go to bed at least until 12, I do not always succeed. I monitor the hormonal background, the work of the digestive tract, monitor the level of vitamins in the body, do yoga, go to EMS training to keep my joints, spine, and the whole body in good shape. I like to feel my muscles, to be flexible. All this I do not from under the stick, but in a thrill, and I enjoy this way of life.

Sometimes I get better after the holidays or a good rest, then I lose weight, but I don’t worry when something becomes badly buttoned on me. This is not a tragedy for me. Now I look at my kilograms differently – in principle, I don’t weigh myself. I know that not everything that we see on the scales is fat. Because when you start active sports, muscles begin to grow, and they are heavier than fat, this can be shown by the scales. There is also a point: if you start to eat improperly, disturb your sleep pattern, or hormonal disorders appear, swelling is possible. And the scales in this case show the water that accumulates in the body. Doctors can use special measurements to calculate the mass of muscle, fat and fluid in the body, and then you can understand how much you have lost weight in reality, but it is impossible to find out at home.

All my men were with abs cubes

Whether the attitude towards me changed when I lost weight, I did not notice, except that there was an interest in how I did it. But compliments “how you lost weight” quickly get used to, and they even start to annoy. Friends treat me as before. Men, as before, pay attention, I have never had any difficulties with this. Nobody ever told me: “You are so fat, I will not date you.” All these fears are actually in the head of women. Those men who are attracted to women of model appearance continue to pay attention to them, and I am in no way a hindrance in this. Yes, I have other parameters, and it does not upset me, because to each his own. The biggest plus is that now I wear clothes that I could not afford before. Nothing else has changed.

In the winter I was in Switzerland at a ski resort and went to a pool with thermal water, where at that time cute chubby size 56 rested, and at some point, amazingly handsome guys swam up to them, as it turned out, their men. Then my friend and I thought that in Russia there are nice guys with big girlfriends, probably, they would be condemned. This is not the case in European countries. There, beautiful athletes often meet corpulent women.

Guys with perfect bodies have always loved me too. Although I don’t particularly like pitching, almost all of my men were with abs. Although I do not belong to phyto-babies at all. In Russia, in general, people are very dependent on other people’s opinions. This is all our genetic history: we come from the Land of the Soviets, where it was not accepted to stand out and the “individual farmer” sounded like an insult. Therefore, our people are highly susceptible to stereotypes.

It’s a mistake to think that divorce influenced my weight loss. Guram and I (Anfisa Chekhova and Guram Bablishvili have been dating since 2009, signed in the summer of 2015, divorced in the spring of 2017. – Antenna’s note) parted in a calm state of mind. Both made this decision, agreed with him, no one suffered, did not engage in self-deprecation. If the end of my relationship with my husband meant a lot of stress for me, I would not get divorced. I lost weight a year before the divorce, while still with Guram, and was already at my current weight. In principle, my body works differently: when I’m nervous, I start to eat a lot. If I was nervous during the breakup, then after the divorce, I would have eaten several kilograms. 

No need to carry your chest like a battle flag

My choice of wardrobe has transformed not only with age, experiments with appearance, but also with my psychological state. It’s no secret that it strongly influences what people dress in. In my youth, due to self-doubt, I pulled my figure in every possible way, I thought if I put on a thing that was not in shape, I would seem huge. But in fact, emphasizing her bodies, folds, she only spoiled herself visually. Now I do not like such things, I have left in the past a frank neckline. I do not need to impress others with my sexuality, my energy, intelligence, charm, sense of humor are enough for me. Carrying your breasts like a battle flag and wondering why men want only sex from me are the mistakes of youth. Now I choose clothes according to my mood, comfortable. I stopped feeling fat in it, I stopped thinking that he made me fat.

Like any TV presenter, I always had a stylist, but when I was younger, I did not listen to him, I often went against it, it seemed that I knew everything myself. Now, looking at photographs from my past, I understand how wrong I was, and now I trust a professional. I have my own stylist, she is my friend Maria Belova, who makes bows for me not only for shooting, but for every day, she comes to me from time to time, takes apart my wardrobe. Thanks to her, I completely changed my style of clothing, fell in love with oversize.

Not ready to have my bones washed

I often post my photos in a swimsuit and underwear on Instagram and, of course, use filters and Photoshop. Any photo in a magazine, even plus size models, is corrected to achieve an artistic picture. For me, Instagram is also a similar platform for showing myself in a winning light. I try not to overuse Photoshop, I don’t increase or decrease my shape by half, but sometimes I give the skin some smoothness, remove cellulite, for some reason it annoys everyone, although I have been living with it all my life. And, probably, one day I will achieve such zen that I will stop hiding it in the pictures and begin to demonstrate it in every possible way. Now I am not ready for the invasion of the so-called haters who, after the publication of such photos, would wash my bones. Although I have cellulite, as I think, any woman, and I do not hide it. For home use, I use ordinary photographs, I don’t correct anything in them.

When people see me on TV, they say, “Oh, you are slimmer in the photo.” Although I am not underestimating the parameters in the pictures, this is such a law of telephoto – everything is a little wider, fuller than in reality, and in the photo you can take such a pose that you will look twice as slim. To present the figure in the most advantageous light, remember: the best sunset light. Then the picture does not require any correction at all. Correctly selected swimsuit and underwear are also important, because with any piece of clothing, the figure can be both visually improved and worsened. And, of course, the correct posture is required. By the way, in our show “Model XL” I will have a special lesson where I will tell the girls about the best poses when posing in a photo. There are many other secrets, life hacks not only from me, but from the stylist, psychologist, TV presenter Katya Skulkina. We tell the girls in the body how to present themselves correctly.

They’ve been hounded all their lives

The heroines of our project are, of course, daredevils. Having come to the program, they assured that they were satisfied with the figure and were ready for any filming, indeed they walked the catwalk in swimsuits, and were not ashamed of anything compared to many overweight women, but, no matter how they hide, they have a lot of psychological problems. Because these are girls who have been hounded all their lives, laughed at them, reproached their figures, trolled in social networks. And they crushed in themselves, sent into the depths of the subconscious all the negative that they heard about themselves, but did not get rid of it. Some girls, when I talked with them, cried, they opened up painful abscesses, rolled up childhood memories, we analyzed a lot, and each of the jury members helped to change psychologically, to believe in themselves and to love their figure even more.

It is important for them to accept themselves as they are. Look here. There are many dog ​​breeds. I have a French Bulldog now. She is plump, powerful, with many folds and a flattened nose, still farts, grunts, snores and will never become a slender woman. Because this is all a feature of the breed. People buy French Bulldogs and are delighted that they are. Nobody says: “I will buy it, but I will make you lose weight. Also, people, we all have types. We are different. Our body directly depends on the psychotype, and you need to accept yourself and come to terms in a good sense of the word. Not like: “I am the worst of all and I will put up with it”, but “I am what I am, and this is good.”