Instead of making a wish on her 33rd birthday, America Ferrera chose to count her blessings. In an April 18 Instagram, the Superstore actress shared a photo of herself post-SoulCycle class, adding a lengthy caption about how she learned to accept her form.
“At 33, I finally understand that my body is a miracle!” wrote the Ugly Betty alum. “After too many years of criticizing, punishing, depriving, or neglecting my body for what it isn’t, I’m attempting to love it unapologetically as it is!”
The Emmy-winning star, wed to writer-director Ryan Piers Williams, 35, continued with an ode to her shape.
She then extended her thanks to the “amazing humans” in her photo “and so many more who have inspired me to celebrate my health and strength!”
Ferrera first began to love her body when she competed in the 2016 Nautica Malibu Triathlon. As she completed the one-mile swim, 25-mile bike ride and 6.2-mile run (in an impressive three hours and 42 minutes!), she fought to silence her inner critic, she explained in a recent New York Times essay.
“With every step, stroke and pedal, I turned, ‘No, I can’t’ into ‘Yes, I can’; ‘I’m limited’ into ‘Look what I’m capable of’; and ‘I’m weak’ into ‘I am whole, healthy and strong,’” she wrote. “I finally got my answer to that question: Who do you think you are? I am whoever I say I am. And I am a triathlete.”
