Spring break diets are about as common on campus right now as L.L. Bean boots, Lululemon leggings, and Canada Goose jackets. I’m sure we’ve all seen women and young girls adhere to strict “slim down” meal plans and endure “booty buster” workouts in preparation for bikini season–hell, I’ve even done them myself. I’m all for clean eating (I love you, Salads Up), and I believe that taking time out of my day to exercise and to focus all of my energy on myself and my own body is essential to my happiness (and my sanity).
But, I’ve recently noticed something about this spring break diet culture that I do not believe in and I simply don’t understand. The workouts, diets, and cleanses that I’ve heard about this year all seem to indirectly focus on one thing: How to Get the Perfect Bikini Body for the Perfect Instagram Picture.
I think social media gives people the freedom to express themselves and it’s incredible that I am able to catch a glimpse into so many lives through 140-character thoughts, 10-second videos, and one-sentence bios on my phone, all available 24/7 in my back pocket. However, the fact that young girls, my peers, are making decisions about their bodies and their health based on how they want to be represented on social media absolutely blows my mind. I think it’s inspiring and refreshing when girls feel confident enough to share their pride in their own hard work and dedication through cute beach bikini selfies with warm filters and electric blue water in the background, but when those photos become the only reason someone’s lifestyle has changed, is it still healthy?
Exercising and eating a healthy diet should make you feel strong, powerful, and even more self-aware, but when you actively tell yourself that these efforts are all for the purpose of projecting a certain image of yourself to the world through pictures, you lose the most rewarding benefit of a healthy lifestyle: self-confidence. When you reduce yourself to a profile on Instagram, you rely on likes and comments to validate your own hard work; you aren’t working out and eating healthy for the betterment of yourself–you’re doing it for your “followers.” You aren’t trying to build strength, to run farther, or to reach any goal other than to fit in your bikini the way you’re “supposed” to, and then broadcast it to the world. You’re manufacturing an unrealistic, perfectionistic digital identity that your current self can’t measure up to, and never will.
I’m not telling you that getting in shape for spring break is wrong, or that you shouldn’t post that cute picture of yourself in your new Triangl bikini sipping a piña colada out of a coconut; what I am saying is that if you’re going to focus on your nutrition and exercise this month, do it for you–no one else. Do it for the mood you’re in after a good sweat, do it for the extra energy you’ll have in the morning, do it to be able to do something you couldn’t do yesterday. Do it for the way you’ll feel in the bikini–not how you’ll look in it.
Images courtesy of Huffington Post and gymflow100