Former Miss SA finalist’s bigger bikini body gets tongues wagging

At the time of year when healthy eating and exercise are encouraged, a former Miss SA finalist has shared her own advice in a bid to inspire others to be positive about their bodies.

Marciel Hopkins took to Facebook on January 5 to share her words of encouragement and to show a comparison of her body shape from 2015 to now in 2017.

Hopkins said she had received a number of queries on how to lose weight and which diet she followed for Miss South Africa, and so, in a bid to provide honest feedback, Hopkins took to Facebook to explain that she never followed a specific diet but trained hard.

“The picture on the left was after 5 months of intense training and absolutely NO carbs, red meat or alcohol. Chocolates, cake and sweets were swear words! I trained 2 to 3 hours a day and I even worked cardio sessions in over weekends,” she wrote. 

She further recalled eating only a baby apple for dinner on the evening after that photo was snapped during a shoot.

“From the picture on the right, more than a year later, I want to say, it’s NOT worth it to fight a daily battle with food or your body. Bodies are different, we can’t all look the same. Instead of having #bikinibody unrealistic-nonsense-goals that are being spoonfed to us on a daily basis, strive towards being the healthiest and happiest version of yourself (mentally and physically),” she said.

She encouraged readers to make their bodies their “new best friend” and said, “Self-acceptance is a relationship that you have to work on daily.”

According to YOU, Hopkins insisted that no one told her that she needed to lose weight to compete in the pageant but felt that if she had entered with her size 14 jeans, she would not have been accepted.

Her post is receiving a lot of attention with more than 3 000 shares and nearly 9 000 reactions on Facebook. There are also 592 comments on the post on her Facebook page.

Read the full post here: 

A screenshot of the post by Marciel Hopkins on her Facebook page. Picture: Facebook

A day before this post, Hopkins posted her 2017 bikini photo with the following inspirational message:

A screenshot of a post by Marciel Hopkins on her Facebook page. Picture: Facebook

– Caxton News Service

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