Comparing myself to other people is something I’ve always done, and something that has always ultimately had negative effects on my own progress. From when I was a teenager surviving off rice cakes in the quest for a ‘thigh gap’ to being in my twenties and wanting my thighs to get bigger, I’ve always wanted something else in terms of my personal fitness and aesthetics goals. A lot of this comes from Instagram – I love following other fitness accounts for inspo, ideas, motivation, & generally just feeling like part of a community. But it does have a negative impact when you see other people’s progress pics and wonder why you can’t make the same progress in the same time. As quite a confident and extroverted person, it’s not something that the people around me usually expect from me, and a lot of that comes from how I don’t like to talk about negative thoughts/feelings. But it is something that I am trying to come to terms with for the sake of my own personal growth.
Working at Sweaty Betty, I’ve had a lot of opportunities to learn from people in the wellness industry, and this month our Wellness Wednesday looks at how growth doesn’t come from comfort zones. I’m super excited for this talk and I’ve been thinking about it a lot. For this reason I’m trying to push myself a little more – I tend to stick to lower weights, skip an exercise when I’m training, maybe eat a little less clean than I’d like. I justify this by telling myself that something is better than nothing and that I’m doing more than I used to. Which is true, but now I see that I’m not helping myself with this mindset and instead holding myself back, telling myself not to try in case I fail. Another thing I do is tell myself that “she’s only lifting that much because she’s stronger than me”, although I know in myself that no one starts off super strong and I can only get that way by working harder.
By January this year, I had made a lot of progress with eating cleaner and training harder and then I decided to ‘bulk’ – but only increased my caloric intake whilst not upping my training at all. In fact, by now I have so much on at uni (I’ve written 7 essays this month, along with most of my dissertation which is due on 3rd May, and then I have an exam on 24th May) and I’m working so much at my store that I saw that I’ve only been to the gym eight times in the past month! And I know I’ve let a lot of my healthy habits slip. I’ve been saying to myself recently that I might as well give up and I’ll never get to where those Instagram girls are. But if I could do it before then I can do it again, so I’m using myself as motivation here.
Speaking of uni work, it’s something I do a lot there too – telling myself that I’ll never achieve what —- has, so why bother trying? This has been such a toxic mindset for me and just putting in a tiny bit more work this year has improved my grades so much, along with how much I enjoy my course.
So how will I stop this? I don’t think I’ll ever scroll through Instagram and think “God, I want her abs”. But I’m also trying to remember that I don’t need to be strong like anyone else, I can be strong like me, and that progress isn’t always linear. I’m also trying to trust the process a little more and not give up when I don’t see results as quickly as somebody else. So watch this space, and hopefully my next post will be more positive!!
P.S. Happy Easter xxx
welcome to my world 