When Instagram was launched, it was widely used to share photos of our fancy (or not-so-fancy) dinners. The filters made our selfies look more glam, and appropriate hashtags fetched ‘likes’ from across the world.
In the six years since its launch, the photo-sharing app has pervaded our lives. We can shop, stream live videos, and with the latest update, share up to 10 images at a time.
For me, it’s a digital scrapbook, recording every friends’ wedding in minute detail; for days when my eyebrows are on fleek to cute moments with my baby niece.
Hey, I even won a hamper of alcohol in an Instagram contest once! The Mayfair filter must be my lucky charm.
Apart from this, over the past year, Instagram has become a place where I go to get inspired to get healthy. Search for “fitness” on the app, and you will never reach the end of the resulting list. From healthy recipes to teas that promise six-pack abs, you will find them all here. But there are an equal number of people who share their personal journeys to leading fitter lives.
@the_walking_joey, @graciesjourney, @join_jessica_xo, @obese_to_beast and @popster.pat are some of the people I find most inspiring. Each of them has their story about what started them off on their respective fitness journeys and the transformations are fantastic. They share weight loss victories, non-scale victories (like fitting into a smaller dress size) and basic motivation.
If they can lose over 100 pounds (like Joey and Gracie), fit two glasses of wine into their macros for the week (like Jessica) or meticulously follow workouts like Cassey Ho’s Blogilates for over two years (like Patricia), there’s no excuse for me.
But before I could be inspired by these amazing people, I had to cleanse my feed. I know my weaknesses: just last week, Facebook memories reminded me of a pizza party I’d had two years ago and I ended up ordering a chicken dominator, with garlic breadsticks and an jalapeño cheese dip. So much for Day One of Couch to 5K training. I stayed right on that couch.
So far I’ve unfollowed Buzzfeed Tasty, TasteMade (even their adorable Tiny Kitchen) and several people who have the enviable advantage of being able to eat as much as they want and not put on weight. No. I’m not bitter at all. I simply put on 100 grams if I so much as look at a Burger King ad. However, by my calculations, dark chocolate is healthy, so I’m still following Earth Loaf, Pascati and Mason & Co.
When I finally found a gym I liked, with the best trainers I have had, I unabashedly shared my workouts every day. From shying away from full-length pictures, I reached a point where I could share videos of myself deadlifting and doing back squats with a barbell across my shoulders. It gave me accountability: I challenged myself to go to the gym for 30 classes straight, and I did it. Which reminds me, it’s time to start a new challenge.
It’s easy to be inspired, but difficult to act. I confess I haven’t gone to the gym in a couple of days. Perhaps I’ll skim through my Instagram feed again to get another dose of fitspiration. And till then, I’ll find some make-up and handloom sari pages to follow. Just to fill the void.
