Home / Women in Focus / Key debates

This Fitness Instagram Star Wants You To Stop Being So Self-critical

by Pascale Day ,
This Fitness Instagram Star Wants You To Stop Being So Self-critical© instagram.com/mybetter_self

It's easy to be critical of yourself when you're just a double tap and scroll away from Instagram perfection. But French blogger Louise Aubery isn't having any of it. In her latest Instagram post, she's teaching us critical thinkers a little bit of self love.

Fitness blogger Louise, a student at Sciences Po Paris and UC Berkeley with over 50,000 Instagram followers, recently uploaded a snap to her Insta account that shows a side by side comparison of the same photo, annotated with how her followers see her versus how she sees herself.

⚡️ I am guilty. I am here to always be completely honest, because I feel social medias need more of it. | As much as I preach self love and truly made some progress accepting myself, there is something I really struggle with : pictures. . . Whenever I see a picture of me, the first things which catches my eyes are my FLAWS. I always see what is wrong. "Too close". "My nose appears too big." "My legs look too white". "I look terrible" This is usually what follows when someone show me a picture they took of me. . . YET, I really do not look at people's flaws first when I look at a picture of someone else ! On the contrary, I tend to focus on their assets. . . So why not do the same with yourself ? We really need to learn not to be so harsh on ourselves. It is not healthy. I am going to work on it, and I hope you will too. 💛 _____________________________________ ⚡️ Je plaide coupable. Vous savez que l'honnêteté est une valeur que je chérie; et je trouve que ca manque sur les réseaux sociaux. | Malgré que je prêche l'acceptance et l'amour de soi et que j'ai fait de réels progrès sur le sujet, il y a quelque chose avec lequel j'ai toujours beaucoup de mal : les photos. . . A chaque fois que je vois une photo de moi, tout ce que je vois en premier sont mes défauts. Je vois toujours ce qui ne va PAS. "Trop proche" "Mon nez paraît trop gros" "J'ai l'air trop blanche" "Supprime" : ce sont généralement mes premières réactions après avoir vu une photo de moi. . . Pourtant, ce n'est pas du tout comme ça que je réagis quand je vois une photo de quelqu'un d'autre ! Au contraire, j'ai plutôt tendance à voir leurs atouts . . Alors pourquoi je l'applique-t-on pas à nous-même ? On doit vraiment apprendre à ne pas être aussi dur envers soi-même. Ce n'est pas sain. Je vais travailler dessus, et j'espère que vous aussi. 💛

A post shared by Louise| PARIS |Thinker & Maker (@mybetter_self) on Aug 1, 2017 at 12:16pm PDT

The annotations say that while other people may tend to see her big smile, long legs and strong butt, all she sees is a big nose, back fat and cellulite.

"I am guilty," she wrote in the accompanying caption. "I am here to always be completely honest, because I feel social media needs more of it. As much as I preach self love and truly made some progress accepting myself, there is something I really struggle with: pictures."

She admitted that when she sees pictures of herself, she does the same thing we all do - she criticises it mercilessly: "I always see what is wrong. 'Too close', 'my nose appears too big', 'my legs look too white'. 'I look terrible' this is usually what follows when someone shows me a picture they took of me."

"I wanna be skinnier". How many of us have ever had this thought ? I know I did. So I started eating less. And less. And doing more cardio. And more 👉🏼 Picture on the left was taken 2 and a half years ago. I thought I was fat, that I needed to get skinnier, and I thought I was healthy, eating clean 100% of the time and exercising 7 days a week 👉🏼 Picture on the right was taken last week. I found the bikini in my old clothes and I was shoooocked by how tiny is was now lol #gainz. And I've never felt so good in my own skin. I eat a lot, healthy most of the time but always delicious foods, I do no cardio and I absolutely love weightlifting. Just do what you love kids. Prioritize your health. Both mental and physical. Your body will thank you 💛 ______________________________________ "Je veux être plus mince". Qui n'a jamais eu cette pensée ? Je sais que je l'ai eu. Donc j'ai commencé à moins manger. Beaucoup moins. Et à faire plus de cardio. Beaucoup plus 👉🏼 Voilà où ca m'a emmené : à gauche, il y a deux ans et demi, et je me trouvais grosse lol. Je pensais mener un mode de vie sain, mangeant clean 100% du temps, et m'entraînant 7 jours par semaine 👉🏼 A droite, photo prise la semaine dernière. J'ai retrouvé ce maillot dans mes affaires et j'étais juste chooooquée d'à quel point il était trop étroit désormais haha #gainz. Et pourtant je ne me suis jamais sentie aussi bien dans ma peau. Je mange beaucoup, sain mais toujours délicieux, je ne fais pas de cardio, et j'adore la musculation. Morale de l'histoire : faites ce que vous aimez. Prioriser votre santé, autant physique que mentale. Votre corps vous remerciera 💛

A post shared by Louise| PARIS |Thinker & Maker (@mybetter_self) on Jul 25, 2017 at 1:09pm PDT

Louise dedicates many of her Insta posts to boosting the confidence of her followers, often asking them to work on their body postivity. She admitted in this particular one, though, that when she looks at other people, she always tends to focus on their assets. But, in an effort to embrace how she looks, she's encouraging others to focus on looking at themselves in a positive light rather than being self-critical.

"We really need to learn not to be so harsh on ourselves. It is not healthy. I am going to work on it, and I hope you will too."

Can you relate to Louise? Let us know @soFeminineUK

You might also like...

Blogger Tells People "It's Cool To Be Real" In Honest Instagram Pic Of Her Stomach Fat

Plus Size Model Tess Holliday Celebrates National Nude Day Like A Boss With A Very Cheeky Photo

This 26 Year Old With Wrinkles Is Teaching Us To Love Our Bodies

Pascale Day
you might also like