I just want to create awareness about something that happened to me in the past week. It’s a bit of a rant but if you are someone who struggles with self confidence or are constantly trying new ways to lose weight it’s worth a read 💜
I was googling weight loss shakes and low calorie diets for a project I’m working on. Then later on in the day, I was doing my daily scroll through my Instagram news feed and I was starting to notice a few pages in my feed that were sharing weight loss tips alongside ads for weight loss products. Now for someone in the health industry, this might seem normal but on my personal page I barely follow anyone in the health and fitness world because I like my personal page to be filled with my friends, family and pages that make me happy.
Then more and more were popping up and it looked like I was following all these pages but Instagram have just sneakingly placed a sponsored post in my newsfeed to start filling my brain with “weight loss tips”, specific diets to follow and the next “it thing” product to lose weight. Now I am someone who is confident in my body and I know most of these suggestions are just fad diets that don’t work.
But if I was someone who had low self esteem or someone that has been on/off the diet cycle for years, this would start to feed into my psyche. I then would start to read these posts, start to believe my body needs to change and then start to follow their advice. Then the more pages I follow or diets I researched, the more my news feed would be full of “diet culture” propaganda.
I wanted to raise this to you because if you are someone who isn’t feeling confident in their body at the moment, your body is not the problem… diet culture is!
The ideal body type is not the 90s supermodels we used to see in magazines anymore. The ideal body type is the body that is optimally at its healthiest no matter the size or shape.
The ideal diet is not the one non-qualified nutritionists or gym junkies push in their “8 week body transformation” programs because it helped THEM lose weight and tone up. The ideal diet is the one that you can follow without putting your body under mental or physical stress.
The other point is social media’s algorithms are f**ked up but we can’t change it unfortunately but we can override it. If you are having a day where you feel a bit down about how your body is feeling… google positive uplifting quotes, search body positive pages on Instagram or find a guided meditation about “loving yourself” and go within. Then your newsfeed will be filled with beautiful, motivating quotes and bodies of shapes and sizes loving themselves.
Remember it’s ok to have days where you don’t feel great but don’t let Social Media tell you it’s a problem. It’s not, it’s completely normal to feel that way.
My fave pages I follow that make me feel good about myself:
@lizzo - the queen herself
@celstebarber - the Aussie Insta Queen
@threebirdspapaya - if your a mama struggling with postpartum body confidence, she is a great one to follow
@amygerard - if you ever feel stressed about being a good mum and want a laugh, she has a great no filtered approach to parenting
@momentaryhappiness - for beautiful quotes
@karinairby - for bikini body positivity and a great laugh
@dietician.rachelgoodman - for a no BS approach about diets and how you can change your thinking
Who is your favorite person you follow on social media that makes you feel positive about your body? 🤍