I haven’t written anything for a while. After travelling I have kind of felt like I wanted to take a step back from the social media world. I wanted my life to be MY life. With so many new things happening in my world, I feel like I don’t really want to share it with absolutely everyone anymore. Sharing special moments with my family and close friends is what is important, not how good my life looks on Instagram or Facebook.
That being said, I still love to write and there are plenty of things that I am still very passionate about. Health being one of those things. At this time of the year everyone is on their best behaviour and on a serious ‘health kick’. It’s a great thing that people make an effort to better their lifestyles, however there can also be a darker side to this seemingly bright new year attitude.
From personal experience and from working in the fitness industry for years I have come across all kinds of people. Surprisingly (or maybe not) the things that many people have in common is a lack of self belief, a tendency to be very self critical and a lack of love for themselves. This applies to men and women. I’ve seen big huge body builders criticise every single part of themselves and I’ve seen teenage girls tear themselves apart (and everyone in between). I am also very guilty of all of this.
It’s no wonder that many of us feel like this. We are all under immense pressure to look a certain way. Whatever is on trend, we pine for it. Even if it isn’t natural for our bodies to do certain things, we give it a bloody good go. Instagram fuels this heavily. On a good day we can be inspired to get to the gym or to drink a green smoothie and it can have a positive effect on us. However on a bad day it can lead to us comparing ourselves to millions of other people, leading us to think that we aren’t good enough. It is a vicious cycle.
So many of us vow to be healthy to change our bodies and to look like this or look like that. We often forget what is going on INSIDE of our bodies. It is crucial that we take care of ourselves and feed and treat our bodies right. Starving yourself (to get skinnier) or stuffing yourself (to bulk up) with unhealthy food isn’t going to make you FEEL better. Ok, so you may reach your aesthetic goal, but what does that matter if you feel like crap? It is not sustainable.
Anyway, my point is, we are forgetting what healthy really is. We are forgetting that we are all different. We are forgetting that it is ok to do what you really want to do and you shouldn’t feel judged or guilty. Life is meant to be fun. Our bodies are meant to be fuelled with nutritious food. We are meant to move our bodies, but in a way that we enjoy. We aren’t all meant to look like supermodels and we certainly aren’t all meant to never eat a slice of cake. We weren’t created to stare at screens comparing ourselves to half naked Instagram people.
We are supposed to get out there and live life.
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