Confession: When I’m on the toilet, I scroll through Instagram. I’m willing to bet a lot of you do, too. Don’t worry, I’m not asking for a show of (hopefully washed) hands.
I don’t know why I bring it up because, in all honesty, it’s pretty beside the point. But, the other day, let’s just say, I was scrolling through Instagram. And amid the seemingly endless array of side-by-side fitness before and after pics, the thing that stood out to me was neither inspiration nor a suspicion of Photoshopping and tricky lighting.
Instead, what really made my eye twitch were the two simple words: “before” and “after.”
Why the ocular muscle spasms? Because our health doesn’t exist on a tidy little timeline of “before” and “after.” It has no start date and no end date. (Unless, of course, you’re talking about birth and death, but that’s another subject entirely.) Instead, it ebbs, it flows, it occasionally nosedives, and, with the right investments, it picks back up.
For most of us, the goal is that it finally gets to a place where we could just “maintain” the results we’ve already gained. Where all of the hard work, struggles, and fluctuations would be over. But the reality is that life and health really don’t happen that way.
Remember those Disney movies you grew up on, with their “happily ever after” endings? Yeah, they weren’t realistic were they? Relationships, even the best ones, are in a constant process of evolution and change. So are our lives. Our personalities. Our needs. Our health. Our bodies.
Our bodies change before we ever take a “before” picture, and they continue changing long after we snap that “after” one. We might gain or lose weight. We might build or lose muscle size. We might develop new stretch marks, carry a baby, heal from injuries, sport scars. We will wrinkle. None of these changes are inherently good or bad, and all of them are examples of how the body adapts to carry us through this thing called life.
Our “before” pictures capture how our physique looks in one moment in time. Our “after” pictures capture how our physique looks in one moment in time. That’s it. The same goes for every photo of every person ever taken.
Let that sink in. It’s important.
And here’s the cool thing: When we truly understand that our bodies don’t fit into neat little “before/after” boxes, the pressure of having the perfect “after” pic takes its big, hairy foot off of our chests. Our mindset shifts and we can then start to enjoy the journey as opposed to darting toward an imaginary finish line.
We become better able to appreciate our bodies for the dynamic, adaptable homes that they are. They are never done changing, and that’s beautiful.
This article originally appeared in my Know Your Strength email newsletter. If you want to stay in the know, you can subscribe here. I promise to never bombard your inbox (I email once per week) or give out your email address (so not cool).