Lydia: “My body’s the best it’s ever been”
She’s recently transformed her life and her figure – and Lydia Bright tells Closer she couldn’t be happier
here have been some big T changes for Lydia Bright in the past year. Not only has she found love with mechanic boyfriend Lee Cronin and settled down, she’s also shaped up and gained an impressive six-pack.
The former TOWIE star, 28, garnered a lot of attention on Instagram recently after posting a bikini picture of herself with a taut set of abs, and now everyone wants to know her secret!
“I definitely feel the happiest I’ve ever felt with my body,” she says. “But most of that is down to feeling fit and healthy – it makes me feel so positive. And having someone who loves you as you are is a big confidence boost, too.”
NATURAL CURVES
Lydia admits that her new gym routine has naturally given her more curves – something she had been longing for.
She says, “I’ve always been a size 8 and I still am, but I feel curvier now, which is nice as I’ve always been an athletic shape. I’ve learned to work with what I’ve got now, rather than wishing I had big boobs or a curvy bum.”
But that still doesn’t explain how she got those abs. Lydia laughs, “It’s been down to diet, I think. You can do all the crunches in the world, but you need to eat well and cut right back on sugar and fat, too.”
Typically, Lydia will have poached or boiled eggs on wholemeal toast for breakfast, lunch is bulgur wheat with vegetables, edamame and pesto, and dinner is a prawn stir-fry with glass noodles.
She says, “I try to eat as lean as I can and want to put as much good stuff in my body as possible. I’m an animal lover, too, so after watching Cowspiracy [a documentary film exploring the impact of animal agriculture on the environment], I cut out red meat and dairy and just have soya milk now. But on a Sunday I usually spend the day with my family and we’ll have a curry or roast chicken dinner and dessert.”
Lydia’s healthy diet is partly a result of her change in lifestyle.
She says, “When I was younger and on TOWIE, I’d be going out partying all the time, drinking alcohol, which is full of sugar, then eating rubbish all weekend. So it became a cycle of being healthy in the week and unhealthy at the weekend. Now I’m older, I don’t go out as much and drink a lot less.”
When it comes to exercise, Lydia goes to the gym three to four times a week for 45 minutes and does mostly weights and circuits – helping her to build up her muscle mass.
“I used to do nothing but running on a treadmill, but since switching it up I’ve noticed a big difference in my body,” she explains. “The gym can be quite intimidating – especially the weights area – but I started going with my brother and my boyfriend and they taught me what to do and how to use the equipment. I make it a nice experience, too – my gym has a spa, so my boyfriend and I will head there afterwards. The gym’s quite sociable and we bump into people we know, which definitely helps me find the motivation to go.”
SELF-CONSCIOUS
But it’s not just her rock-hard abs that have boosted her confidence; Lydia says getting older has changed the way she feels about her body. In the early TOWIE days, she admits she was self-conscious of her small chest and desperate for a boob job. She also felt uncomfortable with her athletic build.
She explains, “All the girls in TOWIE had curvy figures with big boobs and I felt different. But now I’m so glad I didn’t have a boob job, it wouldn’t have suited me and I don’t like that look any more. I think as you get older and more mature, you worry less about the way you look and accept yourself.”
And Lydia admits that she’s definitely
at a content stage of her life. She’s been dating Lee for over a year and is still revelling in the honeymoon stage.
She reveals. “We live together now and things are going so well. Lee makes me feel great about myself and he’s always complimenting me, which is lovely.”
PRIVATE LOVE
And Lydia – who kept her romance with Lee secret for months – admits it’s a stark contrast to her previous four-year relationship with James “Arg” Argent, which played out on-screen in front of thousands of TOWIE viewers. “There was so much pressure on my relationship with James, we couldn’t have a tiff without everyone knowing about it, or it being filmed,” she says. “It’s nice to have a private relationship. I feel so happy.”
‘I’m so glad I didn’t have a boob job – it wouldn’t have suited me’