Diets, fitness courses, lifestyle changes: At the beginning of the year we should optimize ourselves again. Columnist Vivi has had enough of the improvement mania.
It starts again right on time for the beginning of the year: Large fitness studios advertise with New Year discounts, sports influencers want to bring their new programs to men and women and you read about it everywhere Loser success, self-optimization and the way to a slimmer body. What used to be boldly titled “crash diet”, “10-day weight loss plan” or “change in diet for the bikini figure” has been reworded into somewhat woker headlines for a few years now.
Now our real needs and the health of our body and mind are supposedly addressed. We will no longer lured with classic diet programs, instead with “body optimization programs”. The bottom line, however, is that these programs consisting of a change in diet and sports units, coupled with mental health training, have nothing else in mind than pretending that we have to go in at the beginning of the year a better me transform – How exactly that looks like, however, is decided by others.
Stop the optimization mania!
I say very clearly: Stop it! It is enough! Nobody needs to optimize themselves! What does that even mean – that we are not good enough the way we are right now? Don’t we already have plenty of other worries in our lives and is there really nothing more important than stepping on the scale in January and thinking that a few pounds off here and a few more muscles there would make a difference – even make things better? Why are we still firmly convinced that it has ever done anyone any good to cramp into a body ideal chosen by the media? Quite apart from the fact that trends are constantly changing here too they all look different, have different proportions, genes, prerequisites.
Body Trends: Why They’re So Absurd
In the fifties were curvy, female bodies as attractivewhich turned into in the sixties slim and androgynous transformed. It continued in the seventies. At the time, the fitness trend was taking off and everyone suddenly wanted or should athletic curves have and embody the sporty power woman. This trend came to a head in the 1980s and the body role models became ever more stronger and more muscular. Crash dieting has been replaced by strength training. It gets all the wilder when you consider that at the turn of the nineties the supermodels only started to appear on the catwalks super slim and petite looked, only to then close again in the two-thousanders toned fitness icons to become.
The problem with health
Who tried at all these Keeping up with figure trends wasn’t just good for your body, but certainly not good for your own psyche either. Even a constant up and down on the scale is one Challenge for organs, connective tissue and circulation. Quite apart from how many women become obsessed with media-made body ideals treat surgically let and let, only to exchange possible implants in the next trend reversal or to have some conjured up somewhere else. In my opinion, this has nothing to do with a healthy body, fitness and well-being. And please don’t get me wrong, everyone can do with their own body what makes them happy. I have nothing against cosmetic surgery per se or against healthy sports consumption. I am also an advocate of healthy eating, however we have to stop feeling like we’re not good enough all the time.
How others earn from us
Sometimes you have an “advantage” because you naturally big butt other times someone is socially labeled as more attractive because they small breasts has and a few years later suddenly all correspond curvy women the common ideal of beauty. You realize it’s just absurd what we’ve been doing to ourselves for decades, what is done to us and made to believe. And certainly not because it is about us and our well-being, but simply because because others make money from it, constantly selling us new ideals. Let’s be honest: How many unused ones fitness subscriptions we have completed in our lives, how many weight loss magazines, diet products, beauty treatments, dumbbells, fitness equipment and miracle cure did we buy? Definitely too many. And the highest price we have paid is our mental and physical integrity.
My body is a wonderland
Our body, which is just a miracle. It doesn’t matter if it has dents or scratches here and there. It is our body that enables us to do everything we love. The whole Optimization madness in our society only leads to the fact that one constantly feels inadequate. social media at the forefront paints an incorrect image of supposedly healthy, normal-looking people with a perfectly optimized life. That starts with an açai bowl with hemp seeds and a green fitness smoothie in the morning, continues with a “10k morning run” and ends with poached eggs on avocado toast plus golden milk and a yoga session at bedtime.
Stop comparing yourself!
What I mean to say is that our lives wouldn’t seem so in need of optimization if we weren’t constantly comparing ourselves. How many times have I not felt pretty, not slim, not “enough”.after comparing myself to the lives or looks of others on Instagram. Despite a number of jogging sessions, less fast food and no sweets.
With the pressure of getting up early in the morning, keeping a journal of my accomplishments, and forcing myself to make the most of every minute of the day, just didn’t get any better. On the contrary, none of this made me happy. I love to eat sweets once in a while, sleep in and be lazy. Watching trash TV, ordering pizza and staying indoors when it rains. Eating out with friends and not just ordering the starter salad, but bruschetta, pasta and tiramisu! And every time I gave up another optimization plan after three to four weeks, I also noticed that I felt better. Because my body needs exactly what I give it and when I give it – no more and no less.
My suggestion for the turn of the year would be as follows: The only thing we should do is to waste less time with media that put us under completely unnecessary stress and pressure to perform and to surround ourselves a lot more with people who love us and our bodies. Appreciate us, do us good mentally and who would never think of trying to optimize us. You are wonderful just the way you are.