There’s a lot of talk these days about the 100 pounds Adele lost just by changing her eating habits and exercising. Her participation on Saturday Night Live, Saturday (24), will be her first official appearance with the new aesthetic. You’re beautiful. And certainly healthy.

The controversy surrounding Adele’s appearance goes back to that of Maria Callas. In 1953, the soprano reemerged – from one year to the next – as an Audrey Hepburn of the stage, after months of a strict diet that helped to lose 40kg. She was beautiful, elegant, and perfect for the roles she played on stage. Some critics said she lost her vocal potency, but Callas never regretted it. Disciplined with her art, she also became disciplined with her food. She never gained weight again.

There is nothing wrong with a woman wanting to be thin. Health must always trump aesthetics, but it is a personal choice that cannot be translated as criticism of the choices of others. Maria Callas thought that, as an actress, her appearance should be in order to play beautiful and suffering heroines like Tosca or La Traviata. Since she was new to the plus size era, she weighed almost 108 kg, and she liked to eat sweets and collect recipes, but she switched from sweets to a diet of vegetables and grilled meats, which allowed her to become healthier and slimmer.

The legend that to speed up the weight loss process, she ingested a “tapeworm”, a parasite that eats all the food a person consumes, still exists today, but it is false. All biographies credit only Callas’s personal sacrifice to achieve his goal. According to friends, she developed a habit of eating very small amounts, but “nibbling small mouthfuls” from other people’s plates to satisfy her gluttony.

Adele rose to fame at the age of 19. She weighed close to, or more than, 100kg. She became a phenomenon with her second album, 23. She got married, had children, toured the world, and is, without a doubt, one of the most important singers of recent years in the pop scene. Her last album, 25, from 2015, featured a married Adele, mother of a boy, and living in the United States.

Young, famous, and successful, Adele took the last four years to herself, and that’s when she decided to change everything. Single, happy, and self-possessed, the singer left cigarettes and a sedentary lifestyle behind. She bet on a radical change in food, with the Stirfood diet. The proposal was to balance vegetables, fruits, nuts, and dark chocolate with a physical exercise routine. By restricting calories and quantity, the diet stimulates sirtuins, a group of enzymes that improve metabolism, including glucose and adipose tissue. Apparently, it worked.

Adele is beautiful and happy with her new version. That’s what matters. Remember that, in 2012, she responded to Karl Lagerfeld’s criticism of her appearance (“She is very fat, but she has a beautiful face and sings very well”, he said) with the argument that she never wanted to be a model and was like most women, it is unfair. She continues to be like many women, those who set out to achieve a goal and dedicate themselves to it. As she said on her Instagram, “Before I cried, now I sweat”.

Each one with their body, with their diet, with their joy. Nobody has to be the same all their lives just to please the Greeks and Trojans. Congratulations, Adele.

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