Fitspo?

I can honestly say til today I had never heard of Fitspo (fit inspiration). I am a bit of a social media addict, but somehow it's slipped past me. However, I came across this article http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5574150?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063 that opened my eyes.

Actually, I probably wouldn't have bothered if I hadn't seen lots of "I hate hearing people boast about their running/gym/exercise sessions just to rub it in other people's faces" comments. As if the people boasting about their jobs, house renovations and holidays AREN'T rubbing it in people's faces, it's only those who are choosing to participate in physical activity who are smug bastards. Yup, I currently talk about c25k ALOT. But do I do it to shame those who aren't active? Hell no. Your arse, your business! Wanna sit on it? Fine by me, it doesn't affect my body at all. I don't think about whether that makes you lazy or too cool for exercise, I'm too busy thinking about changing what I want to chance about MY body and lifestyle!

So, I went to look up Fitspo. The sheer fact that I was immediately bombarded with reasons why Fitspo wasn't Thinspo, the age-old encourager of eating disorders, didn't bode well. It seems to be a varying scale from encouraging "You don't have to go fast, you just have to go" slogans (which I like) to pics of very very slim and toned women with text about not eating cake if you want to be thin, and similar implications that you need to have these "perfect" bodies to be healthy.

And that for me is the rub, because there are a lot of medically healthy people who AREN'T slim and toned. There are lots who workout bloody hard, and are in great shape, even if that shape isn't this media/Fitspo ideal. For example, Julie from www.toofattorun.co.uk doesn't fall into what fitspo seems to be recommending, but I'd bet there are plenty of women who are the "correct" size and shape who couldn't run like she does.

Health and beauty aren't the same, and just being what modern society deems attractive doesn't mean someone is healthy, and vice versa. Unfortunately, Fitspo, as with everything on the internet, can be taken to extremes and be hurtful. You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to be healthy if you don't want to, though tbh it's worth considering for the sake of a long, hopefully (medically at least) easy life.

I want to get healthy and be around as long as possible. I like helpful motivation, everyone deserves a "You got this!" to cheer them along. Channeled for good, Fitspo could be a great motivator for some people, people like me included. But I know my own mind enough not to be subtly bullied by images of bodies I neither want nor will have. I don't want a thigh gap, or a bikini bridge, or whatever the new thing is this week!

In this day and age of media and peer pressure, I'm not so sure Fitspo gives the right message to teens/young women. Its hard enough growing up anyway without being told that not only can you not be fat, you also cant be skinny unless you're toned. No doubt the margins of acceptability for our wonderful, varied bodies will become even tighter as the media, body snark and the competitiveness between women to be superior continues to increase.

Fitspo as it appears to me is just part of a wider problem: that we can't be happy with who we are so drag each other down to compensate. And that is a big problem.

Just my two cents.