Social media is filled with photoshopped photos and the polished reality of people’s lives is nothing new. Adding filters, adjusting light and color is no big deal and we have all done it. Today I got this photo from my graphic designer, telling me that she had edited my waist since it looked thicker than normal in the photo and if it was ok. I looked at it and asked her to send me the original image. I looked at them for quite a while and told her to put them side by side as I wanted to post both of them together. She asked me if I was serious. I said yes.
If you have followed me for a while you know by now that I’m all about self-improvement, empowerment, and helping women be their best self but only on their own terms and only if they do it for themselves and nobody else. When it comes to presenting an altered body image that doesn’t mimic reality, I want you to know that you should never feel bad about your body because you see perfect bodies on social media, TV, and magazines. Even though I personally don’t have anything against people altering their images, if that works for people then it’s fine, but you as a viewer/customer deserve to know the reality of how things are. Many times patients show me Instagram photos of women that are extremely photoshopped and tell me that they want to look like that – many times it is not possible, because it is just photoshop – not reality.
You should never feel that you are not good enough. I’m proud of my left image. Yes, I could have sucked in more, posed differently, used a different outfit, etc., but I was in my moment feeling beautiful and awesome and that needs no editing.
