compete with yourself, not others
With so many fitspo bloggers and instagrammers around it's easy to get sucked into stories of dramatic transformations (from overweight to sporting a 6 pack in 3 months, really?!) to following food diaries of people who seem to live on a never ending supply of green smoothies, chia seeds and clean foods with not a square of chocolate or sneaky side of fries in sight.
But are these people really living this seemingly 'perfect' lifestyle? Do they really go to the gym 7 days a week? And do they never give in to (or even get) temptations for bad foods? The truth is, that whilst some people really do eat breathe and sleep health and fitness, the majority of will be painting the picture of perfection for their followers - meaning that you (and I) can chill out about that cookie we just ate with lunch.
People, including myself, choose what to share and what to hide online. I choose to blog about certain subjects whilst keep other things personal - and there's nothing wrong with that. Nor is there anything wrong with choosing not to include the photos of your cheat meals, the days where you skip the gym in favour of lazing around in your pyjamas or the days where a can of Diet Coke replaced your green smoothie.
The important thing is to stop comparing yourself to others and to remember that everyone is human, everyone likes the odd piece of chocolate/cake and sure, eating these foods daily will slow your progress down but that it's only natural to want to eat these things on occasion and a treat once every now and then never hurt anyone. So what if you only made the gym three days this week because you skipped it to hang out with friends on the 4th? Who cares if you had a slice of cheesecake? As long as you're making progress and working towards your goals then you've got nothing to worry about.
My sense of achievement and motivation might have been dented with the amount of clean eats and six packs appearing on my Instagram feed lately, and the people that once inspired me sometimes made me feel insignificant and a bit of a failure for a while but I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's time to stop comparing myself to others sharing selective snippets of their life and focus on the progress I'm making myself.
And I'll forever be Instagramming photos of cake, don't worry.
