You basically have to be entirely off the radar not to be bombarded by the tons and tons of “transformation” pictures posted on all social media platforms these days. It seems as if a lot of girls I know, as well as plenty that I don’t, have decided in the past year to spend all their free time in the gym and meal-prepping in pursuit of that “perfect” body. We’re surrounded by quotes like “Summer bodies are made in the winter” and “Make gains, not excuses” every time we log into Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. These girls post not only pictures of their perfectly defined abs and their new workout leggings that flawlessly show off the results of their squats, they also post videos of their workouts, proving that yes, it is that easy to look just like her.
On top of this, there are plenty of posts with side-by-side photographs, before-and-afters, displaying improved muscle tone and shedded pounds. These photos are definitely inspiring— they demonstrate the mental strength and resilience that it undoubtedly takes to spend hours in the gym and achieve these results.
Sometimes, though, I feel myself growing discouraged looking at these pictures. There are instances in which the “before” picture on the left shows a beautiful, thin girl, and the “after” picture on the right shows a girl, still beautiful, who has not a single ounce of visible fat on her sinewy and incredibly muscular body. I look at these photos, lamenting over not even attaining the “before” picture status, and it makes me feel that, in some way, I have failed.
Don’t get me wrong; I am in absolute admiration of girls who put in the crazy amount of work that it takes to achieve that slim, muscular physique. They look happy and healthy, so I’m happy for them. It just makes me feel a little hopeless, as if this is the new standard, and I will never meet it. I find it really difficult to believe that a collegiette taking a full course load has time to spend a couple hours in the gym every day, cook and prep for every meal, work a part-time job, get enough sleep, see her friends every so often, and maintain a GPA that will (hopefully) get her into grad school. Even if I did have the time to do all of that, I don’t know how willing I would be to live such a disciplined life. I go to the gym as often as I can, and I try to eat healthy, but that does not amount to an “after” picture physique —I know this because I don’t have one
That’s okay, though. We don’t all have to look the same, and we don’t all need to achieve the same level of fitness. Being different is what keeps things interesting! Girls of all shapes and sizes are beautiful and radiant, and we should all rock those gym leggings, even if we’re not doing it in the gym. I have learned, scrolling through pages and pages of fitspo transformations, that as long as a girl is happy with her health and her body, that is all that matters. Love your body for what it can do, not for how many visible abs it has.