So… Of course, platinum recording artist and American Idol alum Jordin Sparks has been working hard all year, toning it up and getting fit, as you’ll recall from the following photos she posted to her twitter account:
Both photos courtesy of FreddyO. Click to view more.
and the following photo which, really, is quite new to me:
Photos courtesy of FreddyO. Click to view more.
…but nothing surprised me more than seeing Miss Sparks on the cover of Shape magazine, looking all kinds of awesome!
On the inside, Jordin talks about her decision to be more fit:
“I just wanted to be healthy. It was just before my 21st birthday. I had walking pneumonia, couldn’t breathe and felt totally fatigued. I remember thinking, ‘I’m in my prime. I should be happy and fit.’ That was the moment when I decided that changes needed to be made. I knew I had a long road ahead of me. I was barely working out, and my diet was a mess. I had to address when, what, and how much I was eating.”
When asked for her secret, she gives it to you straight:
“There is no secret,” the 22-year-old Sparkle actress told Us at the event. “It’s just eating better and working out! It’s definitely a daily thing.”
Okay, so… what do those workouts look like? Jordin told Us Weekly:
Among her favorite ways to get her sweat on: high-energy dance classes like Zumba. “My mom’s best friend is a Zumba instructor and I loved it,” she gushed. “I started with walking then went to jogging and then Zumba. I started [working with a trainer] and we did 30 minutes of circuit training so I didn’t feel like I needed to be in the gym for two hours.”
In addition to intense cardio sculpting sessions, Sparks had to makeover her diet as well. “I stop now when I’m full,” she admitted. “I love food and I love to eat. My thing was, do I really need seconds or do I want it just because it tastes good?”
But, believe it or not, not everyone is happy for Jordin and her new figure. From The Stir:
I always thought Jordin Sparks was an amazing role model. Not just because of that amazing voice or even her generally squeaky clean image. She was also a great example of a Hollywood success story that wasn’t stick thin.
Well, so much for that. On the August cover of Shape Magazine, Sparks flaunts her new physique after a jaw-dropping 50-pound weight loss. Don’t get me wrong, she looks AMAZING. But the sad fact is, she was one of the few plus-size stars girls could look up to.
[…]I can’t say I am totally surprised by her dramatic slim down. Newly thin stars often say they dropped the weight for health reasons, but we all know there is intense pressure to be thin in show business, regardless of how “plump and proud” they claimed to be. Case in point, Jennifer Hudson may have won an Oscar when she was still a big girl, but her career really skyrocketed after she lost 80 pounds. Now you can’t turn on the TV without hearing her sing the praises of being thin in a Weight Watchers commercial.
It’s great that Sparks is healthy and happy, I just wish young girls had more plus-size stars to look up to along with all those size 0s out there.
I hate to tell ol’ girl, but using Jennifer Hudson as an example of this is a pretty bad idea. Winning an Oscar is pretty much the pinnacle of an actress’ career. The only way to go up from there is to win another, a feat Hudson hasn’t reached and (no shade) hasn’t even had a role that comes close to putting her in the running, yet. Not sure if she was struggling to find another woman of color to compare Sparks too, but still. Flaws abound. Just say you feel entitled to have a “big girl representative” in the media, and be done with it. If you find yourself being mad that the celebrity you’d attached yourself to has changed their body for [what they believe to be] the better, ask yourself why you’re so attached to a celebrity that you’re getting mad and penning essays about a celebrity who doesn’t know you. Jeez.
What do you think?