In case you didn't hear the sound of the internet breaking, Adele is coming back.
Earlier this week, the singer announced that she will be releasing new music later this month. The single, due out October 15, will be the first song she's putting out in six years.
Along with this news came two cover stories in Vogue and British Vogue, both published online Wednesday. In the pieces, Adele opens up about everything from her upcoming music to her divorce to her new relationship. She also gets candid about her weight loss journey, which first made headlines last year after she posted a photo of herself to Instagram standing in a black dress.
But in her most recent interviews, the 33-year-old is making it clear: her goal with exercise wasn't necessarily to lose weight, it was to help deal with her anxiety, much of which stemmed from her divorce.
"My anxiety was so terrible," she told British Vogue. "I definitely learnt a lot of tools in my therapy, but I also just go with it. I find the anxiety gets worse when you try and get rid of it."
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She explained that working out was one thing that made her feel better, saying she found it helped quell her anxiety. "I realized that when I was working out, I didn't have any anxiety. It was never about losing weight," she said in her Vogue interview. "I thought, If I can make my body physically strong, and I can feel that and see that, then maybe one day I can make my emotions and my mind physically strong."
Adele wound up focusing heavily on working out, a distraction she feels was necessary at the time. "It could have been knitting, but it wasn't," she told British Vogue. Turning to exercise, she works out two or three times a day. "So I do my weights in the morning, then I normally hike or I box in the afternoon, and then I go and do my cardio at night. I was basically unemployed when I was doing it. And I do it with trainers." (And yes, she knows that most people don't have the time or money to stick to such a routine: "It's not doable for a lot of people," she admitted.)
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According to the songwriter, she's lost 100 pounds over a two-year period. But it wasn't something that she publicized at the time. "People are shocked because I didn't share my 'journey'. They're used to people documenting everything on Instagram, and most people in my position would get a big deal with a diet brand. I couldn't give a flying f–k," she said. "I did it for myself and not anyone else. So why would I ever share it? I don't find it fascinating. It's my body."
Along with her exercise routine, Adele also says that she has never been on any diet—regardless of what tabloids have reported. "If anything I eat more than I used to because I work out so hard," she said.
And as always, she's clear about one thing: She's still, and always has been, about body positivity, regardless of her size. "People have been talking about my body for 12 years," Adele said. "They used to talk about it before I lost weight. But yeah, whatever, I don't care. You don't need to be overweight to be body positive, you can be any shape or size." And as she pointed out to Vogue: "I'm still the same person."
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