28/02/2020 Social Media Making You Feel Out of Shape?

Not a day goes by where I don’t scroll down my Instagram feed to be bombarded with images of perfectly toned women in bikinis or workout gear. They have tiny waists but curves in all the right places, abs to die for and bootys that won’t quit!

Social media is full of these images of beautiful girls captioned with the hashtags #fitspo, #fitnessmotivation and #gains. That’s right; these images are meant to make us feel inspired and motivated to get in shape!

Actually, these images usually make us feel lousy about ourselves, below par, not good enough. They leave us feeling sad that we don’t look like the girl in the picture.

The problem is we are so used to these images of so-called perfection our ideas of what is normal and what is beautiful have become very skewed.

The reality is these women are posing. Of course they are in great shape but they are also flexing, tensing, sucking in and sticking out just like we ourselves would do if you took a picture of us. They are being photographed from the best angles, with the best lighting, in the most flattering of poses. They are unnatural shots.

My message is don’t idolise images of ‘the perfect body’ you see on social media. Focus on health, fitness and happiness. This looks different on everybody. Just be the best version of you.