4 Ways to Stop Comparing Yourself to Others On Your Fitness Journey
Part 2: I get it - I really do. It’s so easy to look for inspiration and motivation from others who seemingly have it all together, and beat yourself up because you aren’t where they are right now.
As we learnt from part one: we are all in different chapters of our lives, or what I like to call seasons. Some of us are at a pivotal moment, making a start on our fitness journey for the first time since school.
There are so many other personal trainers out there on social media creating amazing content and I too have been where you are: ‘Is my content good enough? Is my hair right today? Should it look more like theirs?’ When building my online coaching business I was looking for inspiration, but this quickly spiraled to a place that was damaging my mental capacity and leading me to question my abilities. I have since muted or unfollowed accounts that took me down those routes and I spend less time on social media generally, so I can focus on myself, what’s important to me, what I stand for, and how I can show up as my authentic self.
Here Are 4 Ways to Stop Comparing:
1.Limit your social media consumption
We’re all guilty of it. Social media can be a great tool - for me personally it can light a fire inside me and get me inspired to try something. But sometimes it can be damaging, affecting your mental wellbeing and causing you to think negatively about your body, food, and so on.
In an environment that is curated around people living their best lives through photoshopped images, we must get clearer on who we are, where we’re at, and what we want to achieve.
An important step is taking ownership of what you’re consuming and knowing when it is not serving you any longer. So next time you have those waves of feelings and aren’t showing kindness to yourself - do yourself a favour and get off social media.
2. Remember that ‘fitspiration’ is not representation
Being a health and wellness advocate for women, I can’t help but talk about this topic.
Despite your goals of wanting to be stronger, fitter, and healthier, sometimes (and more often than not) how you look can be more of a focus than how you feel or are progressing in the gym or how healthy your resting heart rate is.
Fitspiration originated as a backlash to the promotion of a specific thin-ideal body type, which is typically unrealistic given the variety of people’s cultural and ethnic backgrounds, disabilities, etc. It is not an accurate representation of most people’s body type.
Fitspiration can be great: it can be inspiring, encouraging, and give you that extra boost to get you going to the gym or kick start your journey. Images and videos on Instagram and TikTok can be an amazing tool for change, and an incredible free resource for nutrition and fitness information.
However, they can leave you feeling the complete opposite by making you feel unmotivated, bad about yourself, guilty about your decisions, and questioning whether you should even try—because you won’t ever look like that fitness model in a perfectly coordinated outfit, groomed hair and in full makeup.
So the key question to ask yourself is: is this content motivating me or discouraging me?
Like anything, take the information you see with a pinch of salt, because you don’t know what is going on internally. Remember, health isn’t defined by a thin-ideal type. We all have different training, nutrition accessibility, and time. We can’t cookie cutter someone else's approach - what works for a 20-year-old isn’t going to work for a working mum.
If social media is one of your favourite ways to find workouts, try following fitness influencers that aren’t all about the matching workout outfits and looking perfect in each shot. Find ones that represent you.
Seeing and understanding that your body type is normal will do wonders for your health, and prevent you from automatically comparing yourself.
3. Understand your own fitness and training level right now
This all comes back to understanding your level. It’s quick and easy to say I used to run that fast, I could lift that amount, and before you know it you’ve got an injury.
The key factors here are:
Meet yourself where you’re at
Don’t compare yourself to others and specifically your old self
Take that first 4-12 weeks slowly, building key health markers and baselines for your fitness levels
Just because the person next to you is lifting super heavy on the barbell and you’ve got your light kettlebell to do your deadlifts - don’t worry! They will have been where you once were, it doesn’t mean jump straight to the heavy weights - take your time in building up to it and falling in love with the journey of progression.
Focus on the fact that you turned up and did the workout. That’s what is important. Remember at every stage of your journey, you’re redefining what health looks like to you. You have to work out what works for you and keep refining and developing as you build more confidence, knowledge, and a better understanding of your mind and body!
4. Comparing eating habits: it shouldn't be shameful
This could be a whole blog post in itself so I’ll just dive into the important bits to get started.
There are a large number of influencers sharing what they eat in a day. Of course, this can be beneficial, inspiring you what to cook for dinner, but on the other hand it can force you to be judgemental about your choices.
The key here is to move from a space of ‘cheat days,’ eating something ‘bad,’ having something ‘naughty,’ or a ‘sweet treat.’ What do these things have in common? They are all assigning morality to your food choices.
Food choices are just that: choices! They’re a decision you make, not something that determines your ethical or moral worthiness. When we introduce morality to our food choices, we introduce shame to our food.
It’s so important to understand that our language matters and can affect us. If you want to look and feel your best, move away from food shaming and reevaluate the language you use with your food. Bring flexibility into your choices and eat intuitively.
Comparison is the thief of joy. It’s important to continually turn up and build that relationship with yourself. You’ve got this!
