Yahoo Lifestyle 
Fitness coach Emily Ricketts trolled over 'cellulite' snap
A fitness influencer, who encourages body positivity amongst her 217,000 followers on Instagram, has shared an outrageous message she received from a troll online.
Emily Ricketts, a qualified personal trainer and coach, uploaded a photo to her page, which shows her beaming from ear-to-ear in a pair of black bicycle shorts and a white crop top.
However, while she may look delighted in the snap, her caption tells a different story, with the UK Instagrammer revealing she had received a direct message on her social media page from a person, saying: “How can you call yourself a fitness coach with cellulite on your legs like that”.
Emily hit back in the caption, calling the troll out.
“Apparently we still live in a world where we believe that tiny dimples, ripples, wobbles & lines on the outside define our ability to be strong, be powerful, be successful & be worthy?” she started. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
“I don’t see cellulite. I see strong ass beautiful legs that have got me this damn far. They walked me to my graduation, for both a B.A Honours Degree and a Masters. They’ve helped me host 1,000’s of workouts for women all over the world. They’ve deadlifted double my bodyweight, hip thrusted nearly 3 times my bodyweight and walked millions of steps. They’ve helped me live my life as a wife, a dog mom, a daughter, a sister, a best friend.”
Emily went on to say that she used to spend hours online Googling creams, treatments, fads and quick fixes because she “truly believed that cellulite was something I needed to ‘fix’.”
“It took me a long time to realise the only thing that needed fixing was my mindset. Healthy, happy & STRONG looks and feels different on everybody,” she wrote.
Emily tells Yahoo Lifestyle being able to share the message is proof of how far she has come on her own journey.
“I’ve been in that cycle where you’re just chasing this unrealistic ideal of perfection - and for so many years I felt that how I measured up to that dictated my worth, strength and happiness,” she tells us.
“Messages like this remind me of how far I’ve come, and also how far we as society still have to go to breakdown these unrealistic ideals.”
She now makes sure to use her voice to help ‘empower’ women around the world.
“Now as a woman in the fitness industry who has a platform and a voice, I feel incredibly passionate about empowering women to realise that healthy, happy and strong looks different on everybody!”
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Emily’s followers couldn’t believe a person had actually messaged her with such a horrible comment, writing: “Omg I can’t believe people. Cellulite has nothing to do with fitness levels or health. It’s called genetics.”
Another follower agreed, writing: “I can’t believe how cruel people can be with words”.
Emily has spent years detailing her fitness journey online. In 2018, she uploaded a series of before and after shots, revealing that the difference in the two shots is that in one she wanted to be skinny and in the other, she strives to be strong.
“I didn’t do this because I hated my body — I did it because I love it. If you love something, you look after it. You want the best for it — and you want it to feel it’s best,” she wrote.
“On the left I was fuelled by hatred. Exercise was punishment and food was earned.
“On the right, I’m fuelled by love. Love gets you up at 6am for that workout not because you’ll feel bad if you don’t but because you’ll feel damn good if you do.
“ Love let’s you enjoy food without guilt. Love doesn’t have a size. It isn’t a number — on the scale, in your jeans. It’s a feeling, a mindset, a motivation. Hate? That gets you nowhere.”
In another post, she said she stopped using food as a reward and treating exercise as a punishment.
“ I challenge and cherish my body in equal measures. I workout because it makes me feel GOOD, not because it’ll make me feel BAD if I don’t. And ultimately, I do it all because I LOVE my body, not because I HATE it,” she wrote.
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