Sarah King: Instagram as a weapon of self love
For my entire life, the start of a new year has always been about “the new me," the fresh start. This time I’ll change my life and my body.
While I love new beginnings, I often feel very sabotaged by what will inevitably be another failed diet or cleanse. It will come as no surprise to anyone who knows me personally, I have an eating disorder. I often blame it on growing up on the beach. A pudgy Italian/Irish girl who loves to eat doesn’t exactly make the classic beach body. My friends and I used to play a game called “Does she look like me?” Great title, I know. We would sit on our towels and compare ourselves to all the women strutting their stuff down the beach. I was training myself for a life of comparison. And comparison, as I was once told by a wise pastor friend, is the enemy of joy.
Fast forward to today, and the reign of the social media influencer. The women and men who have curated their houses and lives to be enviable and, for the right price, attainable. They have “teamed up” with a number of companies that can send the latest diet plan, detox remedy or Boho furniture item to your inbox or at your front door. You can be just like them. A photograph. An enviable housewife. It’s all attainable.
We all know that’s total BS. So the question is, how do you turn your social media account and, in particular Instagram, into a true instrument of inspiration? Oh, friends, I am here to tell you, it’s actually not that hard!
Follow Body Positivity Accounts
There is an entire community of women who love their bodies, and they are here to help you love your body too! No matter what the size, big or small. Populate your feed with women who constantly remind you that “Hey! You’re beautiful as you sit there right now! You’re a miracle! And, you are sexy as hell!”
@BodyPosiPanda is one of the most joyful accounts I’ve found. Mary Jane Crabbe is a British body positivity advocate and eating disorder survivor. Hers was the first account that I followed, and she opened the door to the world of women who are doing the radical business of loving themselves fiercely!
@katisturino is a fashionable woman who is wholeheartedly over the idea that women have to be the size of a teenager to wear fashionable clothes. Katie’s mission is to show women of all sizes how to make every fashion trend work for them. And bonus, she’s hilarious!
@No.Food.Rules is run by Colleen Christensen, registered dietitian. The message she spreads everyday is about intuitive eating and how diet culture is a bunch of hooey. What I love about her account is that she reminds her followers daily to trust their bodies. She debunks diets and outdated and sometimes dangerous food “rules.”
Once you follow a few of these accounts, you’ll be able to find more by seeing who commented and checking out their accounts as well.
Curate Your Ads
If you have ever clicked on a diet plan online or a celebrity bragging about their success with a diet plan, I bet you have diet ads in your Insta feed. The Running diet, Noom, Weight Watchers, Intermittent Fasting, I could go on and on. Every one of these ads tell you that you are not good enough. That once you get to the ideal weight, then your life can begin. Then you will be worthy. It’s all nonsense.
So, I started blocking all the ads. And when Instagram asks me why I am blocking them, I tell them I find the ad offensive. Because I do. I don’t need an ad telling me that I need to go on a diet every time I log in. I have to admit, I have gotten nothing but joy doing this.
Just know this, you are enough. You are beautiful just the way you are. Really. And a skinny body does not mean you are healthy. And here’s the bottom line: Whatever size your bottom line is, you can be healthy at any size. At the end of the day that’s all that really matters.
Sarah is the mom of one and part of MIX Mornings with Kyle, Bryan, and Sarah.
