One thing I find incredibly interesting to me are the ads that pop up on your social media. Everyone is different. I was peeking over my husband's shoulder as he was scrolling through Instagram and noticed that his ad content was waaaaay different. It was full of cars, music, electronics… and the list goes on. All of the stuff that I’m not all that drawn to. Mine however is full of workouts, online training programs, food delivery companies, and a ton…. And I mean A TON of online retail whether it be apparel or jewelry. And it all has to do with the content we search for and click on. There are patterns. And as I look at my feed and what I follow, I'm not at all surprised.
I follow a few specific hashtags that I relate to. One is #momswholift. There are so many messages there. What comes up are a wide range of FITSPO all the way to body positivity. You get the ladies who are trying hard to balance being a mom and keeping up with their health. And yes.. There are incredible transformations of moms going from pregnancy bodies back to their super fit physics. I'm enamored by that. I was always heavy and going into pregnancy I had lost a little weight, but I was by no means in a healthy state. So tackling my healthy body 6 years postpartum was my own journey separate from what I see.
Here's why I bring this up. There are times that I have personally looked at some of these images and stories and have had varied reactions. And most of them were directed at myself. On the positive side, I would feel inspired and excited that I could put in the work and get results like the next gal. On the other hand there would be times I would look at my own body and think about those images and be less than inspired. I would be frustrated at how long I made unhealthy choices. I would be disappointed in my periodic inconsistency in my program. And I kept these feelings to myself. Because I was ashamed that I could have so many victories in my healthy body and mind, but would focus so hard on what I didn't have… and honestly may never have. It started as bothering me for a few minutes and then I'd zip up my size 4 jeans (remember I used to be a size 20) and I'd move along and be happy with where my body is now. And then later on it would bother me more for longer. And then I would find myself just being super critical all the time about everything. It was a downward spiral into self-defeat. And then I was listening to a podcast on a bike ride one day and the speaker said something. The message was to not take everything you see on social media at face value. You're only seeing what someone wants to show you. You see a perfect body, but you don't see the sweat, blood, tears, and effort (and filtering) that gets them to look that way. You also don't see that many of them start out as naturally thin people and build a ton of muscle… not the other way around. And on top of that… you don't always see what's going on under those high waisted super hold leggings. Because those mom bods don't just truly go away. There's always something. And those women in those images are probably looking in the mirror and being just as critical about themselves as I am about myself.
So this is a good reminder for me to stop comparing. Because I've done amazing things losing almost 90 lbs over the last 5 years. I've adopted so many more healthy habits and are going to carry me well into the future. And not just that, I've achieved a lot in my career and then lately I've been working to guide others on their health journey. ON TOP OF THAT I've survived this last year with no travel, staying almost 100% quarantined and not going into a downward spiral of anxiety because I've been working on my healthy mind. So many things for me to be proud of. And that's not something you can see by scrolling the feeds.

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