More Than a Body
Why do we place so much worth on our bodies and what are we beyond them? For years, I’ve derived all of my self worth from what my body looks like and how others view it. I’m not the only one, and the more people I talk to, the more I realize how uneducated we are about the narratives surrounding food and body. Learning to love oneself beyond outward appearance is not easy– it’s a one step forward and two steps back kind of process. Negative relationships with food and body are more prevalent than ever. Eating disorder incidence rates have skyrocketed. Some children as young as eight are already beginning to think about the connotations of food. Despite this, affordable care is nowhere to be found. The issue is silenced and commonly undiscussed. My goal with this podcast is to take even the smallest step in changing harmful narratives centered around eating and exercise. I’m only one person with a head full of curls and a fat crush for peanut butter, but if this reaches just one girl who feels lost and in despair, please know you’ve made it all worth it. This one’s for you.
More Than a Body
Episode 9: Filtered Fitness Pt. 1: How Social Media Warps Fitness Culture
After ten whole centuries, I somehow found a microphone again and am bringing myself back to your mom's car speakers (I think) with some more pointless rants and terrible, really bad jokes.
We've talked about social media, and you voted to talk about it again from a different angle.
Social media has revolutionized fitness culture—but has it always been for the better? In this episode, I explore how fitness influencers and social media have shaped a distorted version of health and wellness, often promoting unrealistic body ideals and encouraging negative habits on the path to achieving.. well, what exactly? I'm unpacking the harmful narratives the internet creates and how they've corrupted a really great thing in a way that hurts those on their own journey.
Sit back, eat a taco, and listen to my voice like it's ASMR--but not the kind where they eat food, that weirds me out. I'm here to help you learn how to recognize the toxic content to find a healthier, more authentic approach to fitness in a world dominated by curated online personas.
Instagram: @mgreenfit
Yo, is this thing on? What the fuck is up, kyle? It's been about 12 years. You thought I was gone, but I'm back. Quick life catch up, considering it's been basically a year since I've put anything out. I moved six hours away since the last time I put out an episode. I'm currently getting my master's in social work at the University of Michigan, with the hopes of also adding on a sports social work certificate. So that way not only can I become a licensed therapist for people with eating disorders, but I hope to work pretty closely with athletes with eating disorders. So it blends two things that I love.
Speaker 1:Moving is crazy. Moving is strenuous. I don't think people really realize adjusting to being not just a student again but a graduate student. The workload is insane, even though I absolutely love the courses, I absolutely love the material. Moving was a lot in general. I unfortunately lost my service dog while I was still moving in. You could say that put a little bit of a damper on things kind of a lot of a damper. So that was just a lot to deal with. On top of all the life changes.
Speaker 1:It's a lot to record and put together the thoughts for an episode and the editing process I feel like takes an excruciating amount of time. In essence, between all that stuff, it's made it difficult to put things out. Every single day I'm doing something. I don't have time to sit down by myself. I don't have, nor can I promise, any consistent schedule with putting anything out. However, no matter how much time goes by, this podcast isn't anything I intend to walk away from, because it's been very therapeutic for me, but also it makes me happy every single time to see the difference that it makes even just for one person.
Speaker 1:The topic for today. We've talked a lot about eating disorders. I want to talk a little bit more about my other passion, which is fitness. Fitness can be a great thing, but unfortunately, in the day and age that we live in, fitness culture, especially on social media, has become toxic, and I know for me that's what played a really large part in my spiral into developing an eating disorder. I've got a lot of good content focusing on fitness influencers and the way the gym and health are portrayed on social media. Originally, I was intending for this to be a single episode, and then I recorded and got really passionate and the recording ended up being like really long, so I'm splitting it into two parts. This first part is going to be about those narratives that we see online. Second, mainly about offering advice on how to structure your algorithm a little bit better so you're seeing less of those toxic things, especially if you know that they're harmful to you. About offering advice on how to structure your algorithm a little bit better so you're seeing less of those toxic things, especially if you know that they're harmful to you, in order to preserve your relationship with your body yourself, the food that you eat. The neighbor next door, because I heard she's kind of a MILF.
Speaker 1:Fitness influencers are essentially people that make their money by feeding you fitness content and promoting products through companies that they're sponsored by. They've taken the industry by storm. You see reels of exercise routines, what I eat in a day, videos before and after photos. Here are all the supplements I take. I mean shit. I've unfollowed a lot of accounts and I still get accounts that I feel do more harm than good.
Speaker 1:This can be really dangerous, especially for people trying to get into fitness. There's a lot of intimidation Is everybody going to be staring at me? What if I don't know what I'm doing? I don't even want to make it obvious that I need to read the instructions on the side of the machine. There's so many things that stop people from getting into the gym. A lot of people look to the internet to help them get started on their journey. That's awesome. Social media can be a resourceful tool. It can also be dangerous, because there's so much toxicity and so many fitness influencers approach to fitness is unhealthy.
Speaker 1:Influencers often get an amassed following because of their aesthetic. They post the before and after photos more often than not saying here's what I used to look like, here's what I look like now. A lot of us, seeing those before and after images, assume that it gives them credibility. We see how they got from point A to point B, but we don't always concern ourselves with the methodologies they used to achieve the results. The thing about those images is it creates this idea that health is a look. Health is so much more than that. Health is how you feel, how your body functions. You have to factor in mental health as well. Instead, the dynamic that society impresses upon us is that health is a look.
Speaker 1:As fitness influencers gain more attention, a lot of their workouts are posted a lot of photos showing off their physique. We neglect to realize that most of these images or videos are altered or filtered. They're taken in the best lighting possible. They're like a brand. Nine times out of ten, they have somebody that edits their videos, that edits their photos. We fail to realize the images we're looking at and comparing our own bodies to are completely unrealistic.
Speaker 1:Also, you have to factor in that some of these influencers use performance-enhancing drugs. Several influencers use performance enhancing drugs to maintain their physique and yet they put out these exercise routines or rigid diet regimens you're expected to follow and convinced you'll receive the same results. You won't If you're comparing your body to somebody who has used supplements to enhance what they look like. Dude, it's like a straight man shooting for a gay woman. It's just not gonna happen. Many fitness influencers promote unrealistic exercise expectations.
Speaker 1:We're talking to the point where you have to spend hours a day at the gym. You have to get in x hours of cardio. They're not going to be realistic, but also they're not going to be sustainable for the common person's life. We all have various commitments. Just because there's someone that can spend three hours a day at the gym doesn't mean that you're going to be able to in a sustainable way. Back in 2021, I had the time to spend three hours a day at the gym and do an hour of cardio. Now I'm lucky if I get in an hour workout. Sometimes I'm lucky if it's 30 minutes. Our lives are not always going to remain the same. Our version of consistency is going to change, but it's adapting that routine for your lifestyle. Your lifestyle is not going to match up to a fitness influencer's Homeboy.
Speaker 1:Wakes up, freaking, makes his protein oats, goes to the gym for four hours, films content, goes home and garners millions of likes. They're also making it sound as though it's easy. This person makes a living off of going to work out. That's a leg up. I make a living off of how well I can sell some strawberry cheesecake pancakes, which, holy shiza, if you live in Michigan, I probably I'm not going to say where I work. Actually, that's probably bad. Anyways, I don't make my living off of working out. If I did, I'd probably be able to spend five hours a day at the gym if I wanted to, which, I might add, is not healthy. Please, for the love of God, don't do that.
Speaker 1:If you're somebody that's just starting out, you are not going to necessarily be able to complete these workouts and you freaking, shouldn't? You have kids, you have a dog, you have a job, maybe two jobs. You are taking care of your parents at the same time. You might be a student, or you might be somebody that really struggles with depression, and it can be really difficult to get out of bed every day. Sometimes you don't want to spend two hours at the gym. Sometimes it's an accomplishment when you get yourself there, even just to walk on the treadmill for 10.
Speaker 1:We compare and expect ourselves to be able to complete the things other people are completing. Everybody is different. We're like fingerprints. That was beautiful. That's my creative writing degree. Every single one of us is unique. The way that our bodies respond and react to certain diets, exercises, workouts, routines are not all going to be universally the same. We're not going to be able to do the exact same things.
Speaker 1:Making it sound as if these things are easy just increases feelings of guilt. It just makes people feel they're not doing enough. This idea fueled me into this really unhealthy relationship with exercise, but also put me so out of touch with my body. It was like you can never be happy with any of your achievements. There's always going to be more to do. You can never be happy with the places you reach or the progress you see to fix that, and there's no excuse that is valid in the eyes of most people in the fitness industry that can refute that.
Speaker 1:You're going to be ridiculed for it online. I'm going to give an example of this because I got incredibly pissed off the other day at this influencer who I did follow a post that he made, so I'm going to play it for you really quick and then I'm going to rant. It's a video of a panel of women talking about the ability to control their physical presentation, and this one woman speaks and that's the person that he focuses on and inserts his commentary on what she's saying, and she is a little bit bigger bodied in the eyes of society, and so it's very obvious the fat phobia that is coming out as he speaks At the beginning. Here you're going to see or hear a personal trainer speaking on how your physique is entirely in your control, but nobody puts the effort in, and the woman that speaks next is the woman that is counteracting that statement.
Speaker 2:Your physique is 100% in your control. It's just that nobody wants to put the effort in. Of course, there are aspects that I think you can control about your physique. I think there are more things that are out of your control, like it is so much more expensive to eat healthy than it is to eat like crap.
Speaker 3:This argument is objectively wrong and can be proven with scientific evidence in a matter of seconds. This was a bit of a case study on eating out versus cooking at home, and what they found was that cooking at home was much cheaper, every single time by a drastic amount.
Speaker 1:So here's my issue with that. Let me just cite my sources, because if we take the 10 seconds to watch the video back, we can actually see. What she said is it's very expensive to eat healthy as opposed to eating like crap. So immediately he jumps to the conclusion that when she says eating like crap and while I don't like the word crap to describe food she means eating out and eating fast food You're clearly not even listening to what she's saying. You're immediately getting on the defensive and trying to make somebody feel like shit. It's so true.
Speaker 1:When I was eating 99% lean ground turkey and egg whites as opposed to eggs, it was ridiculously expensive and there's no shot I could afford to live that lifestyle. Right now, people live in food deserts, yet we are what? Condemning people because they can't afford to buy sugar-free brown sugar so I can make a 10-calorie brownie batter. That's gonna taste shocky. No, my god, what are we gonna tell the people in the Flint water crisis? You're not trying to tell you that you can, my God. What are we going to tell the people in the Flint water crisis? You're not trying to tell you that you can pee out of, just turn it into water, like Jesus said Okay, so let's keep going.
Speaker 2:Other than like food costs, like there's also privilege when it comes to like having time To cook stuff.
Speaker 1:Like if you work a full-time job.
Speaker 2:If you have kids and stuff a lot of the time, it's just easier. You don't have the time. And then also privilege when it comes to like your mental health. When you are depressed, when you're struggling to even like get through the day, it can be really hard to have that motivation to eat well.
Speaker 3:I've helped dozens and dozens of people lose weight and I can always tell who is going to be successful at it within the first five minutes of meeting them. Attitude and your mental outlook is the biggest part of dieting and weight loss, and I can tell that this lady just does not have it. She's looking for any excuse. In the book I've dealt with many people like her. You can give them free food and give them all the time in the world you can cook for them. They are still going to find something else, some other reason why they're not losing weight. At the end of the day, it's much easier to point the finger around, to blame it on everything else besides taking personal responsibility.
Speaker 1:Eat my ass. Now I know none of you can see it, but most of the women in the room that are agreeing with this woman are also considered bigger bodied by society's standards. The reason this pissed me off so much is because there's a personal trainer telling them their physique is in their control, and then it is a group of women that don't have thin privilege trying to maybe defend their weight, and when we think about it, that's just sick. I want to go to the comments section really quick because that also really pissed me off. So I do see some good ones, like I think it's okay to step back and recognize how hard it is to get out of an unhealthy food cycle. On paper, it's super simple to only buy healthy foods and only eat at home, but breaking old habits and replacing them with healthier ones out of love instead of self-hate is hard. Shaming others doesn't do much. Please be compassionate and don't be down on others or yourself. Love that. But when I scroll down the comments that this idiot liked, I'm sorry but geez, no time to cook healthy food because you breathe oxygen. Had children have a job. Here's the first one thing I recommend Spend less time at the nail salon getting outrageous talons and spend that money and time making a nutritious meal. Go ahead, hate me, but I'm not wrong. Another one Mom of a four and six-year-old Wife, business owner, daughter to elderly parents. I wake up at 4 30 am, work out and get my me time in. If I do not show up for me, then I can't show up for anyone else. Also, everyone in America is on a budget. Just plan accordingly. Crockpots, instant pots, air fryers are your friend to making healthy meals on busy days. Okay, karen, and what if we can't afford a crockpot or an instant pot? I bet you that never occurred to you.
Speaker 1:Another comment that he liked victim mentality. And this is just like, naturally, all those people that fuel into this really disgusting mindset. It really is all about shaming people into looking away for others' comfortability. So these people are stupid. But that is just an example of what fitness culture and people with amassed followings are spreading these days. I hope you get nothing for Christmas. A lot of people are just more accepting and more comfortable with people that fit into a mold of what they deem a good body.
Speaker 1:When someone loses weight, they're praised. Once I lost the weight it was like holy shit, people see me. Now People started caring about what I had to say and, as somebody that's very self-conscious, that struggled to feel heard at childhood trauma, that was a big thing for me, and then it's this pressure to keep maintaining it. I look back I had put a Q&A on my social media and, yeah, I have people asking me how do you stay motivated and stuff. But I also have people saying how do I get abs like yours? You're just such an amazing, radiant person. You inspire me. Those things totally fueled me, and not in a good way. That praise and those accolades, people saying I was so awesome it's like no, I was not.
Speaker 1:The fact that I also didn't like the person that I was and then I had these people telling me these things even furthered this idea that self-worth completely revolves around what I look like. Connect that to the next point. The idea that thinness equates to someone being worthy of something contributes to the fact that there's not a lot of. Let's celebrate moving in a way that feels good for my body has improved my mental health. Let's celebrate the fact that I'm getting stronger, that my body's becoming more functional, that engaging in activity, whatever that may be, is improving my physical health. Those are things that we need to celebrate. It just furthers this idea that if you obtain a certain physique, you're going to unlock the key to happiness. You're not okay. The key to happiness is, honestly, just like self-growth, self-exploration, being comfortable with who you are surrounding yourself, with people you love. We're born and we die. You're chasing after this physique. Do you really want to spend your life doing that? Because for a time I think I did, and now I look at it and it's like I got friends coming over tonight that are watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets with me. I want more of those moments in my life. I want more moments playing my guitar, more moments exploring nature than I do obtaining a six-pack.
Speaker 1:There are various forms of movement and on fitness talk fitness Instagram there is just the gym, lifting weights. That's the predominant one. However, in order to have a good relationship with physical movement, you have to move your body in a way that feels good to you, in a way that you enjoy, not just one that's impressed upon you by other individuals For some people, it feels good to get outside and way that you enjoy, not just one that's impressed upon you by other individuals For some people, it feels good to get outside and take a walk. My beautiful, lovely grandma. I just went to visit her in Florida. She loves to go for walks. Woman was getting in her steps while pounding a bologna sandwich around the pool. God bless her. Making it sustainable, ultimately, is engaging in activities that you enjoy.
Speaker 1:Most of the fitness world on social media is not going to be inclusive of other body types or shapes. It promotes a very specific shape, one of thinness, fitspiration is thinspiration. There's not a lot of accounts unless you seek them out that are going to promote body positivity or give representation to what alternative workouts would look like depending on capability. The fitness industry completely excludes non-able-bodied individuals and what fitness might look like for them. I see a lot of accounts that garner a lot of attention because of one particular physical attribute and for whatever reason. This physical attribute has always held the most weight for me, so I can understand, maybe, why it holds a lot of weight for other individuals A flat stomach.
Speaker 1:Most commonly younger teenage girls think achieving a flat stomach is the key to happiness. Accounts that you see that have that flat stomach. It's almost another source of credibility the fact that they were able to reach that. Flat stomachs are not obtainable for all. I'm sorry. Your stomach is going to increase in size throughout the day. The presentation of your stomach is going to look different based on how much water you're carrying, what you've eaten.
Speaker 1:Do you have any food allergies that you're not aware of? How close are you to your period, girlfriend? Are you on your period? There's just so many different things that influence that. But also, especially for women, we're not meant really to have a flat stomach. I don't know if you guys knew this it's news to me but we have a uterus, which is fucking crazy. Essentially, we're meant to maintain an extra layer of cushion there to protect those female organs. So for a lot of females it's not only impossible but it's dangerous to try and reach a low body fat percentage. I want to talk about some common things that I see that it's like okay, this is how I know you're not credible because this is so illogical. Number one spot reducing fat workouts. All the freaking time I see videos of people saying here's a 10 minute belly blaster.
Speaker 3:That's what she said.
Speaker 1:Do this workout for four weeks and watch your love handles fade away. Okay, all right, I hate to tell people this. For those that are not aware, you can't spot reduce fat. You can work out a specific area in order to increase the amount of muscle that you have there. However, doing an ab workout doesn't mean you're losing belly fat. Fat loss is an entire body process. You're not going to lose weight in just one particular area. You're going to lose weight over time in all of the areas. Yes, this includes the bajumblies. Anywho, though, as soon as I see those type of videos, I'm like okay, so you clearly have no idea what you're talking about. The fact that they have a flat stomach gives credibility, because it's like they must obviously know about losing belly fat. So if you're just starting out, please do not do one of those three-week ab blaster. We're going to lose belly fat. No, you're not. You're going to lose your dignity. Okay, another one.
Speaker 1:I've talked about these before, but what I eat in a day videos holy tits in America. There are a lot of these in the eating disorder community, but it comes from a different place. It's more with the intent of showing. Here's how I have started to embrace food freedom in an attempt to encourage others struggling with the same thing. Give them hope. Awesome Fitness influencers posting what I eat in a day videos I get really passionate about this. I'm not saying you can't do it, I'm just going to articulate that a lot of times it's so unrealistic Trigger warning.
Speaker 1:I am going to use numbers to kind of explain an article that I read detailing what the average 19 to 25 year old female should consume in a day if they're sedentary, which means if they're not commonly active, and it should be 2,000 to 2,400 calories a day Totally different for women, depending on what your physical activity level is. And there's so much more that goes into that. 2,000 calories a day, which is not often pushed on social media. We're looking at 1,500, 1,200 calories. I'm not really on the male side of TikTok or Instagram reels, so I don't necessarily know what kind of narrative or baseline influencers or other social media presences are pushing onto men, but I do want to recognize that. I'm sure it's equally as unhealthy as it is for women. Not everybody's affected in the same way, but I know for me. I looked at it and I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm eating over 2,000 calories a day. Should I be eating 1,500 gosh? I'm eating over 2,000 calories a day. Should I be eating 1,500? Am I eating too much? And that was me at 11% body fat. Thinking that this information came from Hackensack Meridian Health I think it's a funny name. I'm sure there are other websites or other health professionals that might tell you something different.
Speaker 1:Your caloric needs are not going to match in other individuals. Even if you eat exactly what they eat every single day, it does not guarantee your body is going to look like theirs. Here's my meal plan. Eat this, you'll look like me. No, that's not how that little bitty works. Remember that beautiful writing degree I mentioned earlier?
Speaker 1:Our bodies are as oh and that's my dog. Our bodies are as unique as a fingerprint. God. That sounds like the live, laugh, love sign that you would see when you walk into your friend's mom's house. But it's true. Our bodies have chemical imbalances, hormone imbalances, muscular deficiencies, mineral deficiencies.
Speaker 1:There are so many different aspects that go into the way food will react or affect our bodies. We all need different amounts of food. We all eat at different times. We all eat different amounts. Providing a video is not going to necessarily be a cookie cutter for other people, but other people will adopt that. And for the person that has higher caloric need but is trying to minimize it to this 1200 calorie what I eat in a day video they're going to lose touch with their body. It's shitty. I understand there's quite a few people that put them out there just for food inspiration ideas, but personally I just yeah.
Speaker 1:And then there's also this one I've had people in recovery also try and like do this for me with. Yeah, I'm gonna, it's my ways, it can't, I can't. Can you let that laugh in there? Yeah, I'm gonna, it's my wheeze, I can't. Okay, I can't record in front of other people. I've had people in recovery also try and do this with me, but I've also seen it from people online that promote more of a healthy relationship with food in your body and they say things like hey, it's not restricting. If you like something, just include this amount of it in your diet every day, and that's going to decrease your likelihood of being restrictive or also binging on said thing. There's still a piece of restriction in there that they overlook what this looks like for people, and this is the exact example I'm using because I've experienced someone saying this, a person that has credentials.
Speaker 1:If you like chocolate every day in my diet plan for you, I'm going to cater it to what you like. If you tell me you want chocolate, okay. In order to adopt a healthy you, I'm going to cater it to what you like. If you tell me you want chocolate, okay. In order to adopt a healthy mindset, I'm going to make sure there's a Ghirardelli square in your day each day, okay. All right, I don't know about y'all, but Ghirardelli squares, I don't just want one. It doesn't mean I want to eat the whole bag, but healthy eating also is allowing yourself to have something, or maybe have extra of something, just because it fucking tastes good. I'm not getting no one Ghirardelli square a day. Heck, including just one in my day. That's going to put me in the restriction mindset of okay, I can only have this one square, but I really want another, but I can't. So there's this idea that, in order to eliminate restriction, you just include it in your diet every day, but in a moderate way. I agree, moderation is a big thing. It's not necessarily a negative thing. However, you're still attaching restriction when you say we're going to include this every day, but we're going to limit the amount to which you can actually have it. That's another narrative put out there and makes it look as though someone's promoting a healthy relationship with food and they're not encouraging restriction. However, they completely are.
Speaker 1:We've touched on supplements a little bit. A lot of these influencers they're not professionals. They're just not Even with a personal training certification like I have. It doesn't necessarily mean that I'm completely qualified. That only goes so far. It doesn't necessarily mean I'm the correct person to tell you what you put in your body. I can help you do exercises correctly. I can build a workout plan with you, cater to your lifestyle or your body to hopefully help you reach a healthier place.
Speaker 1:A lot of these influencers they promote products. That's another way that they make money. So they have a bunch of followers, which makes them a walking advertisement for clothing companies, supplement companies. So they're going to post about supplements. And there's a lot that promote unhealthy things like detox teas or expensive workout plans that like they have absolutely no idea if it actually works or not, but bet your ass, they're gonna tell you that it does. And then there's a ton of videos of even younger teenage boys being like I tried Tren or I started doing SARMs and now look at how my physique has blown up. There's a bunch of people that post about those things, and they're failing to recognize how their unreliable routines with drugs negatively affect them. Sure, it might give you the physique that you've been looking for, it might make you feel good about your physique or whatever, but a lot of them come with unhealthy side effects, ones that can persist throughout the duration of your life.
Speaker 1:With steroids, I'm sorry, but there's no going back. There can be high blood pressure, blood clots, aggression, delusion, bad acne and cysts, and hormonal issues. For men specifically, it can shrink their sperm production, can make you ball sack tinier okay, not necessarily the wiener, which is what I thought. I guess the more you know, but, bro, it's going to make your schwack smaller and then also you could develop male pattern baldness. You want a tiny ball sack and you want no hair Boy. I wonder if it makes it so that you don't have any hair down there, cause that could actually be a perk. But don't do steroids, that's not. That's not what I'm saying For women. Your voice is going to get deeper, your rack is going to get smaller and you're going to get more excessive body hair and undergo hormonal changes that can impact you for the rest of your life.
Speaker 1:When people don't see the results they want, or for people that really struggle with motivation, they think that taking these things is a shortcut. I've had people ask me about creatine and say I just don't have the patience, I just want to see the results now, and I've seen all these videos where someone's body transformed after creatine. I'm not going to say creatine isn't necessarily an unhealthy supplement, because I don't believe that, but it's like creatine is not what transformed their body completely. Did it play a small role in maybe increasing their muscular endurance? Sure, but also, do we know what that person was eating during this time period between the before and after? No, do we know how often they were working out? No, that's everything that I have listed on my shape-coordinated notebook here for what I wanted to talk about.
Speaker 1:I hope I hit all the markers and essentially painted this visual of the toxic things influencers or social media pages impress upon audiences in taking this content. It's a much more unhealthy approach to exercise, to movement. It makes me truly sad because movement can be a very beautiful thing for your health, for your mental health. With social media and the way that it's advertised, the way that it's made to look for people just starting out. They're probably not going to start out in a very healthy way. Your social media algorithm will feed you this content, and how are you expected to know what's good and what's bad? You might subconsciously know that an account is affecting you in a negative way or the content is affecting you in a negative way, but that doesn't mean you're going to do something to change it.
Speaker 1:Fitness can be so beautiful. Building a relationship with your body in which you feel healthy can be so beautiful, but there have also become such negative sides to the industry that have muddied the waters on what those beautiful things are. Fitness now is more looked at as something to partake in in order to look better so you can like yourself more. It's not Do all these stupidly hard things so you can like yourself. Shit doesn't need to be so hard. It's not a guy seeing his first set of honkers or me on a chilly day.
Speaker 1:Engaging and movement should be done to feel connected to yourself, to establish a connection between your body and mind, to improve your health. It can be a good outlet. It can be something to make you feel more present or help you take care of yourself. Instead, it's more becoming this world of competition, wherein we don't celebrate the wins or these other more rewarding aspects. For those that struggle with motivation, it puts them down because they feel like they should be partaking in it. Especially on social media, it seems like everybody is becoming very involved. There's that FOMO, but it's not necessarily a fear of missing out. So much as it is, I really struggle with motivation and I want to be able to do those things, but I can't. Makes people feel lazy, makes people feel like a failure.
Speaker 1:The question really is are people getting into fitness because they want to better themselves and feel more connected to themselves, or are they getting into it because they feel like they have to, or because they feel as though they have to keep up with changing body standards? Instead of celebrating those more rewarding things that come with engaging in any type of physical activity, we more celebrate the things that are on the surface the way we look, the aesthetic, the pounds somebody's lost. If it's a common interest that people share and we're passionate about it, it should be a community. We should be uplifting one another, working out. You're meant to do it for the rest of your life if it's something that you are interested in, so you may as well make it sustainable. You may as well learn to adapt. There's no point in looking at an exercise routine that takes three hours and beating yourself up when you can't complete that every single day, when you're undergoing life changes or whatever.
Speaker 1:It's so sad to me how we frame fitness and how we frame the way in which it's supposed to look, supposed to be performed, outcome it's supposed to yield. It increases the prevalence of disordered eating behaviors, weight control behaviors, body dysmorphia, anxiety, feelings of guilt, feelings of shame. It only encourages comparison and I'm going to be a white suburban mom here. Comparison is the thief of joy. The industry's created this new normal that is unhealthy, unsustainable, is toxic for so many people.
Speaker 1:I'm going to end this bit with a 2023 study that was conducted, wherein researchers looked at some of the 100 most popular influencers. They looked at their most recent 15 posts and wanted to consider if they were credible, but also to take into account whether or not the messages in those posts were promoting unhealthy or unrealistic body types, and nearly two-thirds of those 100 most popular influencers did promote unhealthy, unrealistic beauty standards. This was published in BMC Public Health. Less than half of the accounts that were the most popular were actually considered credible. That is all I got for this episode. I am so happy to be able to put out another episode, especially after such a long, long period of time. That's an inside joke.
Speaker 2:We have to sit out here and wait a long period of time.
Speaker 1:It was also great just to be able to talk about my other passion, the fitness industry, even if it's in a little bit of a negative light. I hope that this was helpful. I hope for someone that is getting into fitness, this kind of shows you what you might need to steer away from. I am making this a two-part episode so I do have the second half recorded. I just need to edit it or advice on how to recognize if accounts are having a negative impact on your mental health, if they're not putting out information that's going to be beneficial or healthy for you per se Things that I know for myself. I've done. So please look out for that episode After that one probably my favorite episode I have ever recorded.
Speaker 1:I got to sit down with this beloved four-year-old girl, lauren, and interview her and ask her questions about food Just getting a child's perspective on food before the world taints it. A lot of people think children are only going to eat sugar, so I can answer some of those questions. And it's also just such a fun episode that one will also be a two-parter, because I also got to sit down with Lauren's mom, who is a close personal friend of mine, and talk with her about how she parents around food, as someone that has struggled with disordered eating behaviors herself. Be on the lookout for both of those. Thank you again for listening. Be sure to like subscribe.
Speaker 1:Kiss your grandmother goodnight for me, so that way I can end up in the ears of somebody else that really, really needs it. Thank you again for being so patient with me and peace out homeostasis. I am only human, and this podcast is a record of my education, learning and recovery process. I am not an expert on recovery or eating disorders. I am just sharing what it is that has helped me in my journey and the knowledge and research I've done that I think could be beneficial to others. It is never my intent to say something harmful or offensive to anyone, and if, for some reason, I've spoken in a way I shouldn't have or that was damaging to you, please feel free to privately message me so I can continue to be more mindful and aware as this podcast grows and continues.