‘The last time I exercised fanatically was at least fifteen years ago’
Djamila Celina Melcherts can be seen this spring in ‘Boxing influencers’, for which she is now training hard. That took some getting used to for the model/TikTok star/Real Housewife of Amsterdam: “The last time I exercised fanatically was at least fifteen years ago.”
“If I’m honest, I’ve always lived a pretty unhealthy life,” Djamila admits in the latest Glamial. “I’m really good at chip shops and my biggest weakness is that big yellow M. It wouldn’t be a problem for me to go to the drive-in six days a week,” she says. “I always liked it, but in my work as a DJ – which I did for a long time – my lifestyle was very irregular and it was easy to have a quick snack.”
Skin and bones
“For my modeling job I had to be slim, and I was. Skinny even. Terrible, I wouldn’t want that anymore,” says Djamila. “To stay slim, I ate one fries a day. I also followed the candy diet. Then I would snack from a bag of wine gums all day and eat nothing else. Really, zero nutritional value too. Now I think: Djamil, what were you doing? But I used to think it was really beautiful, so skin and bones.” Thanks to the Kardashians, the beauty ideal for the Real Housewife changed. “Suddenly curves were allowed again and I actually like that much better. I also naturally have those curves, thanks to my Chinese-Surinamese mother. I am slim, with buttocks and breasts. Although I did buy the latter of course…”
She did not diet for the recording of the first season of The Real Housewives of Amsterdam. “Why? I don’t care at all what anyone else thinks of me. I don’t lose sleep over criticism about my appearance, and I don’t run to the clinic to look better quickly. In fact, I think I’m the only housewife without injectables. Okay, maybe Cherry-Ann didn’t have anything done either, but I think the rest is okay.”
Bleeding hair dye
Djamila has recently started exercising fanatically. “If Boxing influencers had not come my way, I would still not have seen the inside of a gym,” she says honestly. “By the way, the ‘gym’ where I train is our own gym, in the basement of our house in Mallorca. People on social media often see me first in the car, and then at the gym. But this is how I start my day: first a quick errand and then back home,” she explains. “We have been staying in this holiday home for three years now and I have barely seen the inside of the gym. The last time I exercised fanatically was at least fifteen years ago, when I was still at Lucia Marthas’ dance academy.
We have two swimming pools, one indoors and one outdoors. I swam in there a maximum of twice. Ridiculous, I know. (…) I really like football and tennis, and boxing really appealed to me – I’m half a man after all, with quite a bit of testosterone. Get in the ring and fight. And whether I win or lose, I will be toned and in shape, with curves.”
You can read the full interview with Djamila in the latest Glamial. Kim Feenstra and Eva Simons also talk about how they are starting the new year happy & healthy. Now in store!
Text: Agnes Hofman | Image: NL Image
