31st January 2019
social media

Pretty Ugly. The Dark Side of Social Media.

You wake up and the first thing you do is reach for your phone and have a quick scroll through your Instagram feed. You look in the mirror and maybe what you see doesn’t reflect what you’d just seen in the 50 photos you’ve just browsed. Maybe your house isn’t as tidy and picture perfect. Maybe your wardrobe isn’t as curated and on trend. It’s 7.30am and you already feel inadequate. Sound familiar? Is social media actually damaging our mental health or is it just a bit of fun that we take with a pinch of salt? Does social media distort body image? Believe it or not, there are several studies that show that the more time you spend on […]
3rd July 2017
Body positivity

Beauty and the beach

We’ve hit peak ‘Beach body ready’ in the Northern Hemisphere.  Two months’ worth of diets, exercise plans and tummy smoothing swimsuits have been forced upon us from every angle.  It’s now the height of summer and to those who dare to take their body to the beach with double digit body fat percentage: Tracy Anderson is coming to get you.   Who on earth is Tracy Anderson?  She’s a US-based personal trainer to the stars, who once fell out with Madonna and fell in with Gwyneth Paltrow and the Goopettes.  You can see where this is going already.  Now usually, I tend to ignore these celebrity trainers and self-appointed wellness gurus, but last week my interest was piqued and I […]
18th January 2017

Does social media distort body image?

Social media can be a tremendous force for good but does its darker side harbour problems for our body image and mental health?  I review the evidence and offer suggestions for how we deal with this potential ticking time bomb for our mental health.   Much research has shown, over the last two decades, that the ‘thin ideal’ portrayed in the traditional media (films, television, magazines, billboards etc.) is linked to negative body image and subsequently an increased risk of disordered eating.  The near constant presence of this thin ideal in some areas of the media normalise a body type that for most is neither realistic nor achievable but once this image becomes internalised in an individual, it becomes a […]
24th November 2016

The cult of fitspo, clean eating’s even darker sister

I’m a keen gym goer and am no stranger to the free weights area as resistance training is a fantastic way to build strength and increase your lean body mass.  I once even took my hobby to the next level by entering a bodybuilding competition (more on that fateful story later).  This was a good few years ago and since then I’ve seen an explosion of girls and guys on social media posting their ‘fitspiration’ or ‘#fitspo’ gym selfies along with their highs and lows of training and competing.  Many of these wellness warriors have set themselves up as health and fitness coaches offering online advice on training and diet for those who aspire to their physiques.  Fitspo has gone […]