We’ve all seen them—the mint teddy bear gummies that strengthen your hair, the wraps that “tighten” your tummy, and the array of teas advertised to detox and cleanse your body.
Celebrities endorse them, peers become ambassadors for them, and our Instagram timelines are suddenly filled with advertisements for these products. After seeing an array of transformation images on our timelines day after day, it’s hard not to get sucked into it all.
As a new college student, I nearly did. It’s hard to balance classes and homework with a healthy diet, especially since we can’t easily cook something in a dorm room. There are days when I eat more than I should and days when I certainly don’t eat enough. I was so tempted to give in and start one of these trends, convinced that it was going to do the job for me. But then I realized that it wouldn’t.
It all starts with ourselves.
It’s easy to start second-guessing ourselves when we see those advertisements—that we have to wrap our stomachs at night to get a flatter stomach or that we have to replace our coffee for detox teas to feel better about ourselves. When it seems as though everyone is doing it, it’s hard not to give in. Yet we have to take a few steps back and realize that our society is so consumed by how we look on the outside that we truly aren’t focused on how we feel on the inside. That’s the most important part.
Every person in the world doesn’t have a flat stomach by the end of the day. Our stomachs naturally expand as we eat throughout the day and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. You aren’t going to look the same at 7 a.m. as you would at 9 p.m. A vast amount of detox teas isn’t going to “cleanse” our bodies. Something as simple as water could easily do the trick.
These advertisements engrain these unhealthy mindsets into our brains and we all need to take a step back and realize the big picture—that we are perfect the way we are.
So, if you want to give these products a try and feel as though they’re best for it, go for it! (Just always be safe!) And if you don’t, that’s okay, too! There’s nothing wrong with trying to better ourselves and our fitness habits, as long as we do it safely.
Just always go confidently.