Reading in Between the Consistency
Image: Unsplash
Before and after photos are now perfectly curated transformation videos that often feel like point A to point B was a seamless journey. Most times, this isn’t the entire truth. We see online an image created to gain the most followers, views, and shares. What holds the audiences’ attention? Short videos that provoke feel-good images and stories. Many times, this looks like a perfect transition from a body society doesn’t deem as “fit” or “strong” to a body that meets all the expectations of “hard work.” This particular case seems to garner considerable attention from strangers online, who comment on affirming messages on social media platforms, congratulating consistency and a never-give-up motif.
Fitness progress is often showcased in an extremely linear way online. However, between the consistency of working out are setbacks, disappointments, and multiple standstill moments. And so the question remains: What happens when fitness culture’s promise of feeling good doesn’t actually feel good at all? While the chemicals in your body may respond to your workout in ways that lift your mood, the aftermath of constantly criticizing your body doesn’t feel so great. For many, this is something we pick up throughout our childhood and early adolescence when we are exposed to
“I have had a really troubled relationship with my body since I was a child. I have a mother who never let me forget that I wasn’t skinny. And growing up in the early to mid-2000s didn’t help. When I started working out, I started obsessing about everything,” said Jen* of the pressures needing to see changes altered her feelings about working out. “I focused on the wrong things, and it took me a while until I did my own research, started talking to trained professionals who told me not to step on the scale and not to restrict my diet as much as I had done,” Jen continued. The truth is that many aesthetically pleasing videos are missing the moments that aren’t possible to capture, unless, of course, creators are completely vulnerable online. In the case of fitness, not many videos speak candidly or showcase in different ways, how their progress was actually far more complicated in reality.
Curating a particular image about your life goes beyond just documenting your fitness progress. The montages of someone’s perfectly curated life from the moment they wake up (cue the digital clock on their MacBook screens) and snippets throughout the day, shot in perfect lighting and capturing their audience with every transition.
“I have been working out for about 6 months now. And when I say working out, I’m including cardio three times a week and strength training 2-3 times a week. I haven’t necessarily seen any changes in my body aesthetically. I may be doing something wrong, but I’m not exactly sure what it is. But I do move better than I did before. I have a lot more energy,” shared Meera*, who points out that changes in your body that may not be completely aesthetic. “I don’t necessarily have an image to show, a before and after, but I can tell you I feel a lot better emotionally,” she continued.
The pressures of having to share our lives online also contribute to the constant feeling of failure if your progress doesn’t look as linear as it may seem for others online. Sometimes the weight comes back. But also, what about those who don’t want to lose weight. Why should fitness journeys and health-conscious lifestyles only be curated around skinnier or more societally acceptable bodies? How do we change the narrative on that? How do we move beyond attaining a specific kind of body to becoming celebratory of every type of body that exists?
