As we pass through
and head straight for the new year, a change starts to take place among people across the world. First of all, we gorge ourselves on all the food available, with the excuse that we're
. Then, we often start to feel a bit guilty about it.
By the time New Year's Day comes around, many of us are using our
to get gym memberships, start running or change our diets - all in the name of getting the body we want. But as this
points out, this isn't necessarily a productive way to stay mentally healthy.
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Sophie Gray started out using her Instagram for fitness inspiration but has now said that she'll never post a bikini photo again, claiming that the posts were "harmful" in the long run. According to her, living life as you choose to rather than obsessing about your weight is worth it, even if you don't look exactly as you wanted to.
Re-posting an old photo of herself from her fitness days, she wrote about how we will "no longer see pictures of my body this way on Instagram", before detailing why she's changed:
"Having a six pack and thigh gap doesn't make you happy. Pizza and cookies are f*cking delicious. And I'm sick of women being told they have to be anything other than themselves to be happy. I know I was in the #fitspo industry for years, and I still want you to care for your body - but ? this bullsh*t."
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Drastically changing her lifestyle, now allowing herself to have all the food she really desires while working out enough to stay healthy, she is a champion of body positivity. But this didn't go down too well at first. Regardless of the message, many wanted fitness posts from her, meaning that after this change took place she immediately lost 70,000 followers.
She dropped from 430,000 to 360,000 after this change, but she has some new fans now. In the months since her follower count has crawled up to 397,000. Maybe someday soon she could exceed where she was initially.
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Ready for the Christmas break, she had a message for her followers about their mental health during this (often tumultuous) time of year:
"Your mental well-being is more important than the gifts, obligations, festivities and any other thing stressing you out right now."
"Can’t afford gifts? Give the gift of presence. Anxious about all the parties? Say no to some of them."
"Overwhelmed with the need to be jolly, even when you’re not? Learn to be okay with not being okay."
"Breathe. This time of year is about spending time with your loved ones, not the things stressing you out.
Remember that."
It's worth keeping this in mind this month, especially as we often don't talk about our mental health as openly as we should. Luckily for us, there are people like Sophie out there with spot-on advice like this.
