When does pushing over the limit becomes pushing too much on yourself?
Confronting envy
No words ever ring truer to what this quote says than in the world of personal fitness journeys.
Comparison is the thief of joy.
– Theodore Roosevelt
I am sure that we all witnessed that friend’s 3 or 6 months’ massive body transformation on social media. From someone who’s morbidly overweight to looking pretty healthy and slimmed down considerably. They would make sure that everyone knows of their miraculous journey as they keep harping on about it on social media. Some parts of us are genuinely happy for them as they have achieved something which we ourselves are striving towards. Yet, we can’t help to feel a bit of envy for how seemingly easy the outcome came about for them.
We might even start to wonder “How is it that they achieve their results much faster than I am? What did I do wrong? Should I do more (such and such)?
I can relate if you’ve ever felt that way 
. As someone who’s passionate about health and fitness, I too enjoy following various Instagram and YouTube accounts that feature these amazing people. On one hand, it gets me inspired – on the other, I feel really subconscious about my own journey when I see those pictures. It really makes me feel like I’m doing less…
In feeling so, I tend to become sporadic as I try frantically to match with their pacing, which undoubtedly could lead to me getting serious injuries or worse – getting hooked on dangerous substances. I’m glad I was able to nip this at the bud when I realize how foolish it is to compare apples to oranges! I am incredibly proud of my fitness journey that I’ve shared with you guys. Although different, it’s my own regime that I’ve found that it works best for me. This gives me 0 meaning towards comparing myself to others.
I wanted to become healthy in well… a healthy manner. Getting fit quick or easy rarely bears good fruit if you ask me. This is what I wanna talk about today, the issue of taking ill-advised shortcuts in order to chase that excellence.
Failure of rapid fat loss programs
The concept of losing fat quickly is a million dollar idea. Just next to ways of losing fat easily. I can tell you right now that both promises are simply pipe dreams, at least for the next few decades I would say.
Touching back on the subject of rapid fat loss, to put it simply – it’s NOT sustainable!
Let’s look at one of the most popular show based on rapid fat loss – The Biggest Loser. To keep it brief, it’s a long running American TV series that initially ran on NBC for the first 17 seasons. The premise of the show revolves around obese or overweight contestants competing to win a cash prize by losing the most amount of body fat (relative to their weight) over the course of 30 weeks. During this time, the contestants undergo an intensive fat loss program where they partake in entertaining fitness challenges.
Whilst the show’s finale had plenty of successful outcomes that features a loss of even up to 60% of their body weight, it doesn’t depict the true reality for most of the contestants after laving the show. For example, the winner of season 1, Ryan Benson, actually regained 14 kilograms over just 5 days after the show ended.
It is not a wonder that these types of fat loss programs does not work in the long run. Similarly to most fitness Bootcamps, they focus more the fat loss aspect rather than taking the time learning healthy eating habits or overcoming their underlying eating problems. Not to mention, it’s easier to lose fat in an isolated environment away from all junk food or sedentary lifestyle. Once they re-enter society, these restrictions are lifted and most fall into the temptation of fast foods again after being denied for so long. There is also the absence of Bob Harper’s screaming at them to keep pushing, hence the lack of incentive to continue being active.
After uncovering the truth on why we become fat, we can sooner realize that combating fat loss is more so a psychological and biological problem rather than a physical one. What The Biggest Loser failed to address are the underlying negative coping mechanisms that leads to the contestant’s unhealthy eating habits. Having been re-subjected back to the stressors of daily life, they crave the dopamine hit more than ever. Failing to develop any new coping mechanisms in the program (other than being yelled at by coach) causes them to default back to their old ways of coping, i.e. binge eating.
If we’re no addressing the root cause, we’re definitely not solving the issue for the long term!
Substance abuse
Another thing that irks me about body transformation journeys shown on social media is how they mostly highlight the physical aesthetics as the sole indicator of good health. Don’t get me wrong, I do think that positive comments and accolades about being physically aesthetic is well deserved. In fact, that happens to be my main objectives as well when I first started my fitness journey. However, it only becomes a problem if it’s portrayed as the only end goal that everyone should try to achieve.
This subconscious message may cause individuals to start rushing the process – unfortunately to the point of considering Steroids use to be a viable option. They are knowingly (or unknowingly) putting their health at long term risk for the sake of societal validation!
In reality, health and well-being are complex and cannot be judged just by physical attractiveness. Other more important aspects of health we need to consider includes asking ourselves questions such as: “How much energy do I have day to day?”, “Am I feeling good about myself?” and also “How much do I believe in myself to achieve something I want to do?”. Substance abuse can’t help you out in those other departments. If anything it can make you feel more like a fraud and that’s not a good attitude to have!
Slow and steady wins the race
Like the famous saying in “The Tortoise and the Hare” in Aesop’s fable. It’s better to jog slowly and steadily towards your end goal. Rushing things for short term benefits or satisfaction rarely ever ends well for anyone. Especially when approaching a wholistic view on health – not just physically, but mentally as well.
Here at Healthy Thoughts Only, I do want to share more tips from my onw knowledge and experience that would be beneficial for you guys – BUT not under the guise of it being quick or easy. It’s a long journey, even for myself. So I hope that this article will get you to start thinking more critically and conscientiously about your own journey to pursue a better, healthier you ☺.