Hey Tattlers. I've just come across this thread and have many thoughts.
I've been a subscriber to Ilonas channel for years. From when she was living in London with her ex, who wasn't even her husband at that point.
I really liked her, and she was the first gym chick I followed. I'm now a gym chick myself and have fallen in love with powerlifting and probably have Ilona to thank for that.
I've always noticed something a bit off about her, not enough to stop me from enjoying her content, but she was always a bit right wing for me, a bit "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" when it comes to money and life, etc. I realised she had an addiction during lockdown. She got REALLY pissy when she didn't have the right gym equipment and even moved to Bulgaria because she couldn't handle the UK lockdowns keeping her away from the gym. She also had a god complex, thinking that being in shape meant she was impervious to covid. (As I mentioned I'm also a gym girl, and I was hospitalised with covid last month. Muscles won't save you, it's just genetics).
The other thing is she has a lot of internalised misogyny that she needs to work through. I think this ties into her extreme physique. She started out as a bikini model (and won medals and looked great!) but then I think her addiction to getting big and body dysmorphia took over. She just kept training, it seemed like with no competition goal in mind. Bodybuilders are always dialled into their chosen categories and will train some muscle groups really hard, but go light on others to make sure they fit their criteria. I'm not sure what the plan was after getting too big for bikini, because she wasn't a good fit for wellness at all, and she apparently didn't want to get any bigger, even though that was the only option left if she wanted to compete. She's now got herself stuck where she was using more gear and gaining more muscle than I believe she actually wanted to. It's a shame because this didn't need to happen. She could've stopped growing and stayed competitive in a different category.
Now I think she's in a state of cognitive dissonance where she needs to constantly justify her physique and continued use of steroids to herself. She said she's asked her male friends if she looks "too masculine" and they said no, you look athletic. Which is a lie. I won't use the word masculine because muscles don't have a gender, but she 100% looks like a bodybuilder who has used steroids for many years, clearly beyond what is naturally achievable. It's concerning that she can't see that for herself.
Don't even get me started on the men
![Person facepalming :person_facepalming: 🤦](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/joypixels/emoji-assets@5.0/png/64/1f926.png)
Hopefully she's learned some lessons there, and I'm glad she broke up with them at least.