Presented with absolutely no comment.
Most models would have you believe they eat whatever they like – “I eat burgers and French fries!” they protest, as if they fall out of bed every day looking like a magazine advertisement. Industry people know that’s not true, and so does supermodel Adriana Lima.
Lima is disarmingly frank about what it takes to prepare for the Victoria’s Secret fashion show – watched by eight million people, reportedly – in which the world’s highest-paid models wear barely-there lingerie as part of a production that costs $10 million.
So here’s what it really takes to be an Angel: Lima, 30, has been working out every day with a personal trainer since August. For the last three weeks, she’s been working out twice a day.
“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.
“It’s like they’re training for a marathon,” says Sophia Neophitou, the British fashion editor who is chief stylist for this year’s show.
“Adriana works really hard at it. It’s the same as if you were a long-distance runner. They are athletes in this environment – it’s harder to be a Victoria’s Secret model because no one can just chuck an outfit on you, and hide your lumps and bumps.”
The body type they are looking for when casting for the show harks back to the Eighties, says Neophitou, to the golden age of the original supers: Linda, Christy, Cindy, Elle and Naomi.
“It isn’t about being a waif, it was about being empowered and you can achieve that,” Neophitou says. [source]
Now, however, it is reported that she’s simply “misunderstood.” Not that The Telegraph lied on her, but that she was misunderstood:
Adriana is insisting that the details of the “crazy diet” are just a “misunderstanding.” She spoke with E! Canada to set the record straight. She even showed E! Canada her piece of […] cake [and coffee] prior to the show, saying, “I have my Starbucks coffee right there… it was a misunderstanding.”
Like anyone whose body is her source of income — or who poses in her skivvies for all to see — the model says she’s conscious of her figure. She admits, “You can’t eat everything, of course… I eat healthy and work out a lot.”
The new mom also hopes to set a good example for others, saying, “Those teenagers out there, don’t go starving yourself or only drinking liquids. Don’t do that please!” [source]
But then, maybe not so much, because as the ET Canada quotes Adriana:
“Everybody is talking about my crazy diet,” she told me backstage this morning as she got glammed for tonight’s catwalk.
“I know it’s very intense but … I just have an athlete’s mind and I appreciate doing this thing,” she said. “It’s not that I do crazy diets throughout the year. I just do it for this particular thing. After this show, I become normal again.” [source]
Two-a-days, liquid diets and booty paint. Next time you get sad that you don’t look like a Victoria’s Secret model in your lacey unmentionables every day of your life… just remember: two-a-days, liquid diets and booty paint.
I guess I never actually mean it when I say “presented without comment,” do I?