Stop comparing yourself to others!

When I post food photos on Instagram, Facebook or on my blogs, I often get these types of comments:

Wow, that’s a lot of food! Can you really finish that?

You don’t eat much! Is that really enough food for you?

I don’t see much fat? Where’s the fat?

Yikes, that’s too much fat! Is it really necessary to eat that much fat?

Where are the vegetables?

Can you really eat that many vegetables and still be low in carbs?

And seriously, that makes no sense whatsoever! So I thought we needed to talk about that!

Things you cannot see on my food photos:

• if I finished it all
• if I had another serving
• if I had dessert
• how hungry I was when I sat down to eat
• for how long that meal kept me satiated
• what I ate for the rest of the day
• if I had eaten a little or a lot the day before
• how active I was that day
• how I slept the night before
• how much I weigh (and how much energy I need)
• how my metabolism works

Since I don’t eat grains and minimize sugar, my diet is automatically low in carbs (but not ultra low carb) and I enjoy adding healthy fats to my meals for good taste and longer satiety. That makes my diet over all low carb – high fat even if I eat carrots or have a bit of fruit on a salad from time to time. I don’t know how many carbohydrates, grams of fat or calories I eat, and I really don’t care, to be honest. I find that completely irrelevant.

DON’T COMPARE YOURSELF TO OTHERS!
When we compare ourselves to others, we risk starting to doubt if what we do, is actually good enough. If she does crossfits five times a week, how can it be enough that I just go for a few power walks? Or: If her portion is just a small bowl of pretty yoghurt with fruit, what does it say about me that I eat a 3 egg omelet? That kind of insecurities! And suddenly, we get all confused about our own efforts instead of appreciate that we actually do something actively.

There are no short cuts to a healthy, lean or strong body. And you won’t achieve any of them over night. You may be able to do a 3 day juice fasting and lose 3 kilos of water weight but it won’t solve your problems permanently. The only way to go is to find a lifestyle that suits you, your family and your everyday life that will make you healthier, slimmer or stronger. And that’s really tough because more often than not that means that you have to face some demons or some bad habits and maybe you’ll even learn that the habits you cling on to the most (and that you have probably used as some sort of twisted survival mechanism) are the same ones that actually contribute to your problems. And you have to face that to move on. And that’s really painful so it seems much more appealing to just copy someone else’s lifestyle, diet or training plan. But I’m pretty sure you know deep inside that that won’t solve your problems permanently.

However, using each other for inspiration is a brilliant idea! Just as long as we don’t interpret what other people chose to show with the eternal truth about their lifestyle, because when we do that, we are misled. And that’s too bad when we were actually doing really well on our own path. So let’s just agree here and now that we stop comparing ourselves to others and start using each other constructively and positively for inspiration! I think that would make a huge difference!