Kate Upton is doing her part to embrace real life. She did an unretouched photo shoot for the September cover of Health.

“When you think about it, we have retouching everywhere now – and we don’t even know it. People are staging Instagram shots and retouching those pictures. That’s the new norm,” Kate noted. “Doing an unretouched shoot is a step toward embracing real life. The goal should be to be the best you can be — not try to look like someone else.”

That’s why Kate also came up with the Strong4Me exercise program with her trainer, Ben Bruno. The goal isn’t fitting into a smaller size, but rather to get stronger and have energy to tackle the things you want to do in life. “The thing about focusing on your own journey and strength is that you see the results more quickly,” she explains. “Instead of beating yourself up about the number on the scale, you notice when you get stronger. It’s a healthier mind-set, one that took me a while to get to. That’s really what I wanted to share with others.”