Tracy Anderson on the ‘fad’ hurting women: ‘The disease is vanity, insecurity’

tracy health

Tracy Anderson covers the new issue of Health magazine. The interview is made of lies. Too harsh? Perhaps. It just feels like Tracy has a sketchy relationship with the truth and what she really does (and has done in the past) to keep herself “in shape.” She’s also a close-minded fraud and a shade-throwing, name-dropping starf—ker. How’s that for harsh? Anyway, Tracy talks to Health Mag about the “disease” of vanity (ARE YOU JOKING), name-dropping more celebrity clients, and how she used to love to dip cookies in icing before Gwyneth Paltrow told her that only peasants eat cookies.

The fad that’s hurting women: “One hundred percent: It’s called celebrity. We should love their work. But to blow up their importance to the level of obsession takes away from our own beauty and our own gifts. There’s a disease here—the disease is vanity, insecurity and the lengths of unhealthy behaviors people go to to achieve what they think is beautiful. The disease of ‘I’m not worth anything unless I look like that person over there.’”

The change in women’s bodies: “I think it’s changing, and that excites me. You take a Kim Kardashian, who is a curvaceous, voluptuous, petite woman—and she’s on the cover of Vogue! I like that. I think that’s progress. Lena Dunham, who is a buddy of mine, is on the cover selling magazines with her beauty and her light.”

She’s not all about giving women the same body: “I want to get away from ‘Tracy Anderson is going to make you teeny-tiny.’ I’m not trying to make everyone the same. To me, ‘hot’ is not defined by a height or weight or measurement; hot is going to the root of who you are.”

Cookies with icing: “It involves Gwyneth. I was so good at designing bodies, including my own, that I could eat a pizza and a tub of ice cream every day and you wouldn’t see it; it was like a free card to eat whatever I wanted. And I was in London, dunking cookies in frosting. And she looked at me and was like, ‘What are you doing?’ And I was like, ‘What do you mean? It’s so good!’ And she’s like, ‘Do you know how toxic that is?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ And she’s like, ‘And you’re still eating it.’ I was like, ‘You know what? She’s so right.’ That was almost nine years ago. That was the last cookie dunked in frosting I ever had.”

Creating her method: “… It was very apparent to me that being a ballerina wasn’t going to happen. But I’ve always been, like, ‘Welp, there’s a different purpose for me. There is something else I’m supposed to be doing.’ Then at 21, I gained 60 pounds while pregnant with my son, and that’s when I started creating my method.”

She really hates juice cleanses: “Anybody is going to lose weight if they drink liquid all day long. That’s like lunchtime liposuction or freezing the fat cells off. You don’t own that change. The weight is coming back.”

[From Health]

The only consistency here is that she’s always hated juice cleanses. Seriously, she’s always said that juice cleanses are stupid if your aim is weight loss (and I tend to agree with her on that and that alone). Her talk about needing more diversity in the body types represented in the media is not really consistent though. She’s been talking about that, on and off, for a few years (like when she took Kim Kardashian on as a client), but she always shoots herself in the foot by publicly criticizing the problem areas or disaster bodies of various women who dare to not fulfill their size-2 glory. As for her comments about “the disease of vanity” – bitch, you’re the one taking on beautiful celebrity clients and telling them that they need to lose weight to look more like [fill in the blank].

CB also pointed out that Tracy’s cookie-and-icing story has changed over the years – Tracy told the story back in 2009, back when she was partnered up with Madonna (before Madonna had a falling out with both Tracy and Gwyneth). In Tracy’s original story, Madonna witnessed Tracy eating cookies dipped in icing and Madonna called Gwyneth. This is the quote from Tracy’s Hello interview in 2009: “Madonna called Gwyneth and said, ‘I am sitting here with Tracy and she is dipping Oreos into Pillsbury icing,’ and Gwyneth was like, ‘Please, Tracy, nothing processed.’ So I have cut out processed but I will not deny my sweet tooth.'” So why didn’t Tracy mention Madonna this time around? Perhaps because of Tracy’s old relationship with the guy who defrauded Madonna’s Malawi charity?

tracy1

Photos courtesy of WENN, Health Magazine.

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69 Responses to “Tracy Anderson on the ‘fad’ hurting women: ‘The disease is vanity, insecurity’”

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  1. It is what it is says:

    I wouldn’t want her body…it looks abnormal

    • Shambles says:

      No offense to belly buttons, but I think it’s her belly button.

    • MrsB says:

      I feel mean saying this, but she just looks so strange to me. Like her head and her body don’t match.

      • Snazzy says:

        yes that’s what I thought too! When a person is at their “natural” size, whatever that may be, they are generally proportioned somehow. This isn’t the case here …

      • jinni says:

        Her head and neck looks like what happens when you pull a Barbie doll’s head off and then try to put it back on, but all that does is make the Barbie’s head look huge and warped and leaves her with a stumpy neck.

      • QQ says:

        Huh?! You finally zeroed in in what unsettles me about her, not just her verbal diarrhea and the fake perky manner Is THAT!! is like someone frankensteined people together or something features vs size of head and then head vs her body itself

      • JenniferJustice says:

        Like the “Lollypop” episode of Seinfeld. Her head is too big for her body.

    • ofcourse says:

      When we attack the physical appearances of people we don’t like ol’fat-shaming Tracy Anderson, it feels good. If feels justified. The problem is, when we do that, we are also attacking the appearances of bodies (and head sizes?!) So, if I’m someone who feels like they have a disproportionate body, perhaps an even more exaggerated version of the trait everyone is giggling about, then I feel attacked.

      So, please don’t attack Tracy Anderson’s appearance. Not because Tracy Anderson’s feelings need to be protected (she really doesn’t seem like the kind of person who has feelings, anyway), but because an attack on one woman’s body is an attack on all women’s bodies.

  2. Jenns says:

    Good Lord. Shut up. PLEASE SHUT UP.

  3. Cecada says:

    I will always think of that picture of Goopy towering over the diminutive Anderson, and thinking Elf and Dwarf versions of the same ….goop. That’s all I got. Need coffee.,..

  4. denisemich says:

    I think the question is why are we listening to uneducated people about health and fitness. Why would Tracy Anderson a trained ballerina who was Madonna’s personal trainer listen to GP on diet advice. Why would anyone pay someone to train their body who didn’t know what to put in theirs.

    She is right about one thing … we let celebrity tell us what to look like. Otherwise we wouldn’t even know who she was.

    I no longer listen to health advice on dieting unless I see an MD or Dietitian designation.

    • Esmom says:

      I was thinking the same thing. And how weird to see her with the masthead “Health” behind her because I don’t think of her schtick as having anything to do with actual health. Especially when she even admits she would eat garbage and sweets just because she “could.” That’s pretty much the opposite of having a healthy lifestyle. Ugh.

      • Kitten says:

        But that was nine years ago!! Gwyneth helped her see the light by telling her that frosting-dipped cookies are “toxic”!!!

        You see, after that she became an expert on health.

      • Esmom says:

        Kitten, lol. Thank goodness for Goop!

    • neha says:

      Even some MDs and RDs give f-ed up advice. Remember, MDs take one nutritional class (at most) during med school and aren’t as informed as you might think.

  5. Kaley says:

    I honestly have no idea who she is?

  6. kell says:

    Talk about a hypocrite!! She’s done a complete 180, that’s for sure.

  7. mia girl says:

    “There’s a disease here—the disease is vanity, insecurity and the lengths of unhealthy behaviors people go to to achieve what they think is beautiful.”

    Um, excuse me, Ms. Anderson. Seems to all of us that you have made a very good living off of “the lengths of unhealthy behaviors people go to”. I must respectfully point out that you are completely full of sh*t. Have a nice day.

    • Kitten says:

      Ugh. +1! Anyone who says she’s so good as “designing bodies” should probably STFU about this topic.
      Also, she very nicely skirted the issue of a patriarchal society that consistently reinforces an unattainable image of what a woman’s body should look like.

      Like ok, the problem is that women are just too damn vain. *eye roll*

    • GoodNamesAllTaken says:

      Plus, she thinks it’s marvelous that Kim K, Miss Fake, Injected, Lipoed, tucked, Padded Fake Everything, is on the cover of magazines to help us all celebrate our “natural” bodies. Wut?

      • ISO says:

        This brand of duplicity grates on my nerves in that special way- a tanned, bleached bolt on work a holic claiming “there is a disease called vanity”. Yeah and the disease has eaten her body and soul! Yeesh! The moment Goopy Anorexia cookie shamed her is like a freeze frame of traffic accident- I’m in fight or flight right after having read this.

  8. Macey says:

    why do ppl keep giving this con artist a platform to speak? this is also the same guru who shills eating baby food and less than 800 cals to lose weight on top of her insane ‘no woman should use more than 3 lbs weights’. She is probably the most uneducated, unethical shrew in the business. The vanity comment is especially rich considering how much plastic surgery she has had in addition to her own eating disorder. If it wasn’t for her few celeb hangers-on I highly doubt she would be in business. She’s considered a joke to fitness professionals.

    • Hmmm says:

      I can’t stand people who want to crap on women lifting heavy weights. I have cousin who’s always telling me I look like a man because women shouldn’t look muscular.

    • JenniferJustice says:

      And isn’t it amusing that she continues to shill the “healthy route” verbage and yet her most acclaimed client, Gwynny, is known for colon cleansing far more than recommended – an absolutely horrible thing to do to your body (and which isn’t doing any good by the way, because G has a tummy no matter how skinny she gets).

      • moomoo says:

        Are you kidding? G has a tummy? Have never noticed that. I have noticed in myself that sometimes my posture or extra gas gives the look of a tummy. I have very little abdominal fat to the point of having a 6-pack, so I should not have a tummy. When I do regular core strengthening (hips/pelvis and abs) my posture improves and tummy disappears even when I’m not paying attention to my posture.

  9. polonoscopy says:

    “I was so good at designing bodies, including my own, that I could eat a pizza and a tub of ice cream every day and you wouldn’t see it; it was like a free card to eat whatever I wanted.”

    BITCH PLEASE.

    • Esmom says:

      I know. I that comment was the height of arrogance and ignorance, too.

    • Kitten says:

      I know people will hate me for saying this but when I read that part I instantly had an image of her perched over a toilet, puking up frosting-dipped cookies and pizza.

      I don’t believe anything this lady has to say. She just seems so incredibly disingenuous.

      • AJ says:

        My thoughts exactly. As someone who used to struggle with bulimia, I’ve always thought her puffy cheeks were a result of purging. I don’t usually comment on articles like this and wasn’t going to say anything but ugh… you said exactly what I was thinking.

      • QQ says:

        no one is going to hate you for saying what we all were thinking

    • GoodNamesAllTaken says:

      Yes. Ridiculous.

  10. Loopy says:

    Her body looks so strange on the cover, its like they blew up her head and shortened her neck.

  11. Liz says:

    Trained ballerina? There is no way she was ever a dancer. She might have taken a class as a child but that doesn’t make you a dancer. It’s all marketing with her but no substance. She definitely doesn’t move like one.

    • Macey says:

      I dont even think she can keep her lies strait. she’s never even held any type of accredited fitness certification either but advertises herself as a ‘certified fitness professional’.

    • lucy2 says:

      According to a former client, she went to Julliard Dance…for 3 months. There’s also a lot of accusations that once she got everyone signed up to her gym in Indiana, she abruptly closed it and took off, taking all the equipment and money. Before getting famous, she’s apparently start up fitness businesses, rack up debt, and then jump to the next. There was also a lawsuit from a former business partner. Sooner or later she’ll screw over Gwenyth too, I bet.

  12. Birdix says:

    Vanity, insecurity… now I have that old Simple Minds song “Don’t you… forget about me” in my head.

  13. Maryjones says:

    Whats your point? Seems you just posted that to brag. Your a moron.

  14. caitlin says:

    Notwithstanding Goop, there are a lot of otherwise intelligent celebs that dutifully flock to her studios like blind sheep and for the life of me, I can’t figure that out. As others have pointed out, her credentials are dubious and she puts the industry to shame with her philosophy and sh*t talk.

    The fad that’s hurting women? Easy, it’s the Tracy Anderson Method!!

  15. littlemissnaughty says:

    “I was so good at designing bodies”

    SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUUUUUUUP!

    Also, she looks constipated as f*ck.

  16. lucy2 says:

    Um…she knows we can read other stuff she’s previously said, right? Because she’s pretty much contradicting herself into oblivion.
    She’s a scammer and a fraud, and she’ll say anything for the attention, including promoting things that are unhealthy and dangerous. And unfortunately a few moronic celebrities gave her a platform to do so.

  17. Beth says:

    A woman who based her entire fitness method and empire on vanity and attaining a certain aesthetic is now claiming it is a disease? That is hilarious! It is no coincidence that once Tracy Anderson started selling her products at box stores like Target, making quickie, express workouts, and lowered the prices of her DVDs, she started changing her tune to appeal to mass consumers. Tracy fails to realize 2009 wasn’t that long ago, and many of us still remember how she use to prescribe 2 hours of exercise daily, bragged about her celebrity clients, and claimed she could make any body “teeny tiny.”

    The more high profile she becomes, the more she backtracks and conveniently forgets how she use to be. At least back in 2009, she owned her elitist, privileged, overpriced and borderline dangerous ideals; now she acts like she represents Middle America and the Denise Austin crowd. You are not fooling anyone, Tracy.

  18. JenniferJustice says:

    I googled old images of her and of course, as usual, she has breast implants….and yet she’s talking about the problem with vanity and people not accepting their bodies. Whatever.

  19. kri says:

    Oh, god. My last nerve just packed it’s suitcase for an extended vacation. Apparently, TA’ s last brain cell decamped long ago as well. WTF is she babbling about?! If there was no celeb culture she would have zero names to drop. Then what would she do? Slappable to the max, that one.

  20. Pumpkin Pie says:

    “..vanity, insecurity and the lengths of unhealthy behaviors people go to to achieve what they think is beautiful” – Doesn’t at least the insecurity and lengths of unhealthy behaviors part apply to her as well? Based on some things she said in interviews etc, I’d say it totally does.

  21. Lisa says:

    Funny how no matter what she eats, everything that comes out of her mouth is bullshit.

  22. jane16 says:

    Amazing. I think I completely disagree with everything this woman says. And juice cleanses are primarily for cleansing the liver of toxins. If you clean your liver once or twice a year, you will feel better, look better, have more energy, and better health overall. Liver cleanses clean the gallbladder and intestines as well. Definitely worth doing for a few days every Spring.

    • Other Kitty says:

      there is no need to “cleanse” the liver or any other organ. The body does that naturally.

      • jane16 says:

        You are so wrong its scary. When one has a terrible diet, overeats, doesn’t exercise, does drugs and other bad habits, the liver and gall bladder get overloaded with bad stuff. Have you never heard of fatty liver? Or diseased liver? After my oldest son died a few years ago, I ate myself into Type 2 diabetes and fatty liver. After I pulled myself out of my grief, I changed everything I was doing, went on a liver cleanse and healthy diet, went back to regular exercise and did the Gershon Institute coffee enemas (which cleanse the liver). In only a year, there was no sign of the Type 2 diabetes and my liver was renewed and looked 10 years younger according to the docs and techs that ran the before and after body scans. The 30 lbs I had packed on around my middle disappeared. I now eat and drink a normal healthy diet, my blood sugar is back to being in the 80s (after running 300-400 for 2 years) and I no longer need metformin or other diabetes drugs. btw, the Gerson Institute has cured many people of liver cancer, including one of my relatives. The liver only cleanses itself if you are healthy and live a clean lifestyle.

    • GByeGirl says:

      Jane, you are the one who is so wrong, it’s scary. I’m very sorry for your loss.

      The liver cleanses things that are true toxins. Some people get fatty liver disease via genetics or unhealthy lifestyle. You were probably incorporating other healthy habits which prompted the weight loss and the ability to beat your Type II Diabetes.

      Lots of these alt-medicine places are dangerous and it’s dangerous to spread the lie that coffee enemas and the like can cure cancer. A bid alt-medicine guru died recently because she wouldn’t seek traditional medicine for her cancer.

  23. Grace says:

    She seems nice but is a major hypocrite. I remember reading her interviews in the past and she had a whole different attitude about women, throwing shade left and right.

    BTW – funny how Gwyneth gets on Tracy’s a** for dunking her cookies in frosting because it’s “toxic,” yet Goopy is fine with smoking.

  24. V. says:

    I made the mistake of asking for her workout program for my birthday and it was such awful crap. Basically starve yourself and jump around alot. The Beach Body workouts are so much better.

  25. LilyT says:

    Gah! The disease is her horrifying face yelling
    At women and shaming them into believing they are broken. GO AWAY DEVIL WOMAN

  26. Izzy says:

    She should know. She’s the leader of the fake fads.

  27. Vampi says:

    Pot calling kettle! Passive agressive shaming BS. Can’t satnd her OR Goop. She is nothing without the name drops. And even then…still nothing. Ahhhhh…the life of the HWood plastics. Wouldn’t want it for all da money in da world! *dips cookies in frosting and loves it!*

  28. Lili says:

    I think she looks like she could benefit from some vanity.

  29. Liz says:

    It turns out there are many out there questioning her credentials as a “dancer”, among MANY other probable lies. The Daily Beast was unable to validate that she was ever registered at Julliard or a dance choreographer. She’s worse than I thought; she sounds like a sociopathic con artist.

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2009/10/21/madonnas-trainer-fights-back.html

  30. idsmith says:

    It doesn’t surprise me that Goopy food shames people. Then Tracy calls Goops body a disaster. Then she talks about the vanity disease. Don’t these people hear themselves?? If Goop told me not to eat cookies I’d probably eat more of them to spite her. That woman has a serious eating disorder. She once told a story about how she went to the doctor because she was so fatigued and didn’t feel good. He told her she was low in nutrients and vitamins or something, then she tells the interviewer that after that she went home and cut out all dairy, eggs, grains, and on and on to the point there were almost no foods left to eat. So…yeah, what the doctor said and what she heard were completely different. Ugh.