Health and fitness influencers on Instagram are a good source of information and inspiration to help with our own personal fitness goals, providing us with their nutritional tips, workouts and recommended supplements. However, whilst admiring these individuals we can become caught up in comparing our journey to theirs and left dissatisfied with our bodies or rate of progress. When negativity like this invades, we must remember that each of our bodies is unique and our journey to achieve our wellness goals will reflect that.
With this in mind, if you’d like to stay mindful whilst following your favourite social influencers, read on for Instagram Fitness Influencers: 3 Key Insights to Following Them Mindfully!
1. Social Media Influencing is an Occupation in itself
For some influencers, health and fitness are a large part of their livelihood and a source of income, from being ambassadors for active wear to selling their own workout and nutrition programs. Therefore, their time and resources are spent on maintaining their physiques in order to promote and build their brand.
Now think about what your passions are and how your wellness goals support them. Acknowledge that if you’re studying or working full time, you may not have as much time to dedicate to the gym or stick to a stricter nutrition plan that retains washboard abs. Let your favourite influencers act as a guide on your fitness journey but be realistic in your expectations as to what you can apply to your lifestyle to advance your goals effectively.
2. Every Body is Different
Comparing ourselves to others serves no purpose to our wellness goals and can only negatively impact our mental health. The human body comes in all different shapes due to genetics and physiology and decisions made in the past, and so individual healthy physiques will be built around whatever a person’s endowment happens to be
Therefore, we can admire the influencers we follow but must not get caught up in how their bodies differ to our own. Instead, keep your focus on your own body’s journey and work on appreciating the different ways in which it develops as you achieve results.
Furthermore, try following fitness influencers with different body types so that your Instagram feed is flooded with a diverse range of physiques and not just those of a similar figure. Health is more important than purely how you look aesthetically. Think also, do you have functional, practical strength for real-world use?
3. Transformations Take Time
Next time a transformation post pops up on your Instagram feed, check in the description to see whether it says how long it actually took. More often than not it doesn’t because it’s an advertisement offering you a ‘fast-track’ or ‘quick-fix’ ticket to your goals, when in truth the difference between the two pictures could be months or even years, not to mention very possibly Photoshopped!
In comparison, most influencers are quite open about their fitness journeys and so it can be helpful to look back through their profiles to remind yourself where they started and that their toned physiques likely came from a process of years of honing their regime. Understand that noticeable-to-other-people changes take time and you need to find a rhythm that steadily propels and progresses you towards results without impacting your mental wellness. Be excited about your goals but also patient with the process that it takes to get there. Here’s an equation to help you have ultimate peace of mind: Success is 90% process, 10% show-off. It’s the consistent hard work that goes on behind the scenes, that no one ever sees or talks about (because it isn’t “cool” in our quick-fix era) that really counts.
So, following health and fitness influencers can help to educate and enhance your personal journey but you must not let your focus slip or second guess yourself based on others’ results.
