Today, the Oxford dictionary has announced that #Selfie is its word of the year. However, what with a new Instagram food cult cropping up everyday and slebs snapping themselves in pretzel poses, pulling heavy weights and drinking green things in plastic cups, we think next year the #Healthie might just make it in.
#Health #Fitness #HealthyFoods. It’s a growing phenomenon that sucks you in with a simple (#) followed by a word we all enjoy reading #Health. I search for it deliberately.
So what is it about using social media networks to show off how healthy we eat or how hard we work in our workouts? Users say it’s incredibly motivating to post, tweet and even blog about their fitness achievements as it gives them accountability.
Celeb fitness junkies are taking to social media to advocate their love for a healthy lifestyle. It’s spawned a new term: the #healthie. That’s like a selfie but with a picture of yourself doing something healthy instead of merely gazing at the mirror in your knickers.
Jessie J is repeatedly regalling her followers with snaps of herself in the gym and we love her for it, knowing she has to work for that body like the rest of us – though to be fair in most of the pics she doesn’t look like she is pushing it up to three let alone 11. Exhibit A:
Heidi Klum posts photos on Instagram stating her favourite fruits as cherries and inspires cooks to make chicken soup with tons of veggies. She also has her own site, heidiklum.aol.com in which she talks about fitness and nutrition, fashion and beauty, lifestyle and parenting. It pays to be a supermodel with a hunger for health, happiness and cauliflower. Find her on Twitter @heidiklum.
Yoga fanatic Gisele Bundchen posts pictures of her warrior poses in exotic locations to give her followers a serious case of Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) just because she can. Let’s all start wearing matching workout outfits with our friends – posed, much? You can also find her on Twitter @giseleofficial.
The stunning Alessandra Ambrosio is always taking to Twitter to brighten up the days of her followers. She urges them to #meditate and pushes women to pursue yoga. This Victoria Secret model uses her fame to our advantage. The angel wings are missing in this photo, where’s our Photoshop guru? Follow her @AngelAlessandra.
Jessica Alba is not only a hot mum of two but she’s also the founder of The Honest Company (which educates and inspires women to create a healthy future for children). Alba is always sharing her #healthy snacks on twitter and posting photos of her incredibly cute children. Let’s all eat more kiwis. Follow her @jessicaalba.
Rosie Huntington-Whitely sips on some green juice in the mornings and has no shame in sharing a photo with the world of Twitter. “Great way to start the day,” she tweeted. Follow her @RosieHW.
Tips for staying on top of the #Healthie Trend
Do
-Use hash tags #health, #fitsagram, #fitness, #fitfam just to name a few.
-Interact with users with similar hash tags. Leave comments and likes for motivation.
-Follow other fitstagramers who post inspirational quotes and healthy tips and tricks. We have a few favs, @deliciouslyella, @tim_weeks and @kimsbeautydetox.
Don’t
-Overly use hashtags. It’s one thing to use a healthy amount of trending words than to #overdo #strawberrys, #yummyfruits, #ILoveBeingHealthyAndEatingVeggies, #NoMoreCookies #enoughhashtagsalready
-Follow the fakers. Surround yourself with motivators.
-Think it happens overnight. Don’t let other hot bods scare you off, use those photos as inspiration.
On a more serious note, the net can help the rest of us regular folk with longer-term transformations too. Facebook’s growing private group pages feature a plethora of weight loss programs, nutritionists, fitness junkies and more to motivate the initiated. These pages are exclusive to those invited; an online club where users can talk freely about anything related to fitness, health, food and anything in between.
Healthista writer, Lydia Jones, is part of a Facebook page that revolves around Slimming World. Called “SW Buddies <3” in the small group of a hundred or so members, Facebookers post before and after photos, what they’re eating for dinner that day or even funny and inspirational quotes. Here’s Lydia’s stunning transformation – motivation enough for anyone.
Healthista reader, Olivera Drakwall, is part of a Facebook page designed for team building and creating a sense of community for people working out and trying to lose weight. She was invited by her old manager, a certified Team Beach Body coach to join the community. Team Beach Body is a DVD-based fitness programme that gets incredible results.
Olivera says: ‘This group is great. Not only did I start exercising again after 15 years (of which I also was a smoker but no more!) including six failures to join a gym which I never went to #bloodygymsstealingmymoney but I’ve also got to know some amazing people.’
It’s a sense of community, a support system, a way of keeping in touch with people undergoing the same stress that keeps her coming back, she says. ‘We have all rallied up behind a woman who was on her second round of chemo and when she felt tired and drained we motivated her and she actually outdid us all,’ says Oli. ‘When people get really busy and don’t have time to do their workouts (all home DVDs programs) we cheer each other back. No one is judged but rather supported.’
Then there is that classic accountability vehicle: the blog. Tell your followers you’re going to do something – be that a cleanse, a diet, giving up swearing or shaving your head to raise funds for marginalised pie-bakers – and you’re not going to want to fail while the world stands by to watch, follow (and tweet about) your pathetic non-progress.
Just ask Healthista Reboot Body Blogger Charmian Walker-Smith how effective the whole #healthie thing can be for weight loss. Charm completed a 12 week body challenge of gruelling diet and fitness recently. The condition that she post a full length picture of herself with measurements and weight details each week was the most motivating factor she has ever had to lose weight, she says. Charm finished – and lost ten inches – here are the results.
Read the whole Reboot transformation blogs here.
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