The Trouble Behind Social Media "Fitspo" Accounts

I’m at a point where I am so disturbed by some of the things I see on social media, that I want to just disassociate myself at times. Maybe that’s why I try to keep my Instagram free of tons of ab pics, posts that only talk about being shredded and the desire to be extremely lean, sexual “progress” photos (aka thong shots or half of your ta ta’s hanging out), or behavior that is just not something that should be mimicked... like working out EVERY day, tracking EVERY calorie, and obsessing over the scale. I compete in the sport of bodybuilding, which basically sets me up for disaster. It sets up ANY competitor for disaster. It pushes you to extremes, it tests your physical and mental limits, it shows you what “perfection” looks like, it’s about vanity, it’s selfish, and it gives you a strange relationship with food. Food becomes an obsession, and so does training. It HAS to. You have to be perfect with your diet, you cannot skip a workout, and you are pouring 100% into every single day to reach this perfect image. But what many people don’t see is that it messes you up. I don’t care how strong you are... it messes with you. Competing really pushes you to a new level in terms of your physique, but it also changes your entire mindset on everything you do. You become so trapped in your prep for a show, that when it is over, you forget what “normal” is. I remember after my first competition, I tried SO hard to go grocery shopping and buy the normal foods I used to eat. Yep, I ended up leaving with veggies, chicken, oats, and rice cakes. I analyzed EVERY food I came across… I calculated the nutritional information of everything in my head. Out of habit, I ate every few hours, I ate super clean, I never went off my “diet,” and I just stayed in my little comfortable bubble called PREP LIFE. I never left it, really. So maybe you are sitting here going, ok what is wrong with that? What is wrong with staying disciplined and eating healthy and working out a lot? Well… here’s the problem. It becomes destructive. And if you don’t believe me, go look back through my Instagram to about a year ago, and look at how lean I was. I was shredded and I was NOT in competition prep. For women, staying very lean (under 10% body fat) causes a ton of stress on the body, messes up your hormone levels, causes depression, can lead you to lose your period, the list goes on. Moral of the story, staying as strict as a bodybuilder during prep is NOT healthy. But after changing my entire lifestyle for my first competition, and after seeing how amazing my body looked from doing so, it was really, really hard to let that go. I was scared of losing my abs, and losing my “progress” and gaining weight. The thoughts I had years earlier when I suffered from an eating and exercise disorder flooded back into my head. And all of this happened because of bodybuilding. Fast forward a year, and I am here. I am happy. I am comfortable in my skin and I love myself in all phases. But now that I have been through what I have, I see SO many red flags when I look at social media and the people who promote the same lifestyle as me (aka bodybuilders... or wanna-be bodybuilders). Yeah, it’s cuz I can relate to them. And I have been there. I was once where they are right now. But the difference is that for me, I escaped. For many of them, they haven’t. They are STILL struggling. They are STILL trapped. Yet they have thousands of followers who see this lifestyle they promote, and they are so stuck in their ways that I don’t even think they realize what they are doing to themselves and the thousands of people who follow them. So why do I care? They are doing this to themselves… it’s not affecting me. Well, yes it is. First of all, I don’t want ANY one to suffer like I have. But secondly, I don’t want women to follow these “fitspo” accounts and get the wrong idea of what it means to be healthy. I don’t want women mimicking these terribly unhealthy habits. If you see something enough, eventually you will start doing it, too. The last thing this world needs is women OBSESSING even MORE over their body image, over having abs, over every calorie they put in their body, and every workout they perform. If you want to know some “red flags” that I see which gives away that this person you follow probably suffers from body image issues, an eating or exercise disorder, or some other problem that is destructive, here you go:

-They NEVER deviate from their diet. I mean… never. They eat the exact same foods, never go out to eat, never have pizza or ice cream or anything classified as “unhealthy.” (This is because they are scared of unhealthy foods, and are scared to ever go off of their “plan”)

-They track every single calorie they put in their body. They log it on MyFitnessPal or write it down. They know exactly how many calories they eat daily, and they strictly follow their macros every single day and never go over them.

-They workout every day, no matter what. They go SO far out of their way to workout sometimes, that it is almost unbelievable. If they compete, you can BET that they are working out the day of or the day after their competition.

-They MUST do cardio. They do it daily. Most of the time, they do it fasted. They are already lean but yet they still do cardio. Sometimes, they do two-a-days.

-They post ab pics often. They are very, VERY proud of their abs and love promoting the heck out of their tummy. They basically have abs year-round… because they never really take a break from dieting. They are very obsessed with their body image.

-They seek attention. They post a lot of risqué photos and often show cleavage or their booty. These people are very insecure and being provocative makes them feel better about themselves. (*However, posting inappropriate pictures and classifying them as “progress pics” does not justify anything, for the record)

Now, there are more that I could put on this list, but you get the main gist of it. I have been a victim to all of these red flags, and there are days where I still feel like I could easily go back to being that way. I spend every day of my life working on finding one thing… and that is BALANCE. It is hard to master, but it is a great way to become happy, and healthy. I’m so done with this “no balance” and “no days off” attitude. I am done with seeing people who try to promote health and fitness, yet they don’t understand that the desire to have 100% discipline and the desire to be 100% perfect are BOTH harmful things to practice. I just hope and pray that those “fitspo” accounts that you follow don’t start pushing you to have an unhealthy relationship with your body or food or working out. And the best way for me to TRY to impact this, is to break away from this and show how wrong it is to live a life with no balance. Again, I will say this… balance is key!