The media and you!

If you haven’t watched Jameela Jamil’s interview on the dangers of how women are portrayed on social media and how that influences how women see themselves, I would suggest checking it out.

Jameela talks about the pressure of looking a certain way.  After being surrounded by image after image of women who have a very small amount of fat on them, and look very similar to each other, it is very hard to feel 100% confident in your own body.  When we look in the mirror after seeing picture after picture of the same body type, it seems as if there is something “wrong” with what we’re seeing.

I work with many clients and I can see the effects of the media on women and how they feel about their bodies.  I want my clients to feel healthy, strong and confident in their bodies. But, many people come in feeling if they don’t look a certain way they have failed.  

When you come to see me, I don’t ever want you to feel like a failure. I want you to focus on the positive. I want you to see food as something that can bring you power! I want you to eat beautiful vegetables, and healthy protein to bring you energy. I want you to drink water, and move your body!  I also want you to enjoy a treat every once in a while.

This sounds so simple.  But, because we have been programmed to see food as good vs. bad, or look at our bodies as measurements of success, it is very hard to break ourselves from this train of thought.  It is very hard to stop thinking about if you ate perfectly that day (and if you didn’t, do you just throw caution to the wind and say f*&^ it?).

These days we are encouraging women to be strong!  Yay! However, of course we’ve taken it to a level on social media where we have so many pictures of “fitspiration” or “fitspo” so we can all compare ourselves to women and men that have a spray tan, went on a bodybuilder’s diet for the photoshoot (pretty sure that water bottle next to them is for show), and who have been photoshopped.

There is no easy solution for these problems.  But these images are one of the things that make your job a little harder sometimes.  Nutrition can be heavy for some people. I’m here to lift the weight that the magazines and Instagram have put on you.  I’m here to remind you how strong you really are. I’m here to hopefully remind you how great food is (even when you’re eating healthy!). Sometimes we can’t do anything about the images that float around us, but we can help repair our relationship with food, and how we feel about the choices we make.