Yet again, the internet is the place you go when you need some good news to be skewed into something negative. As Boris Johnson this week announced his roadmap to leaving lockdown, the weight loss jokes, memes and posts began.
The theme of the ill-thought-out jokes went along the lines of 'You could be seeing everyone you know again/able to date again/going out in public again come June 21, so you better lose that lockdown weight/some/any weight'.
While the jokes may have been flippant, not everything is. You know there will be meetings happening in certain companies hinged on the ginormous diet industry, upping the marketing budgets in the run up to socialising - the targeted ads will probably appear on your Instagram feed any minute.
But it's more insidious than that - playing out in our own brains. While outwardly it can seem like body positivity (or often just plain old diet culture cloaked in body positivity and wellness) is winning the race for ground in our lives and social feeds, in reality many women will be affected by the messages and memes that were posted yesterday. In the same way similar messages have become ingrained in their brains for decades. In fact, most of the people posting those 'jokes' are themselves victim to that normalising of weight-hate.
All of that is evident in the fact that google shows that searches for '4 month weight loss' have spiked in the last 24 hours along with a series of other questions about what to do and what to eat.
Sarah says she felt affected by the posts that were circulating: 'I’ve never really worked out for the way I look, as conceited as it’s sounds my body has always just been a happy by-product of the exercises I love. But last night, seeing all those posts was the first time I thought “Shit, I need to get back in shape”. I’ve struggled with binge-eating in lockdown and not having motivation to workout at home, so I do look different and now that’s really hit home. I just think on top of everything, we really don’t need any more pressure weighing on our emotional wellbeing.
'Any exercise goal you have, be it aesthetic or strength or fitness, it takes time to get there in a healthy way - putting any short deadline on them is the worst thing you can do in my opinion because it only encourages people to take up obsessive, unhealthy habits to get results quicker. I’m a big believer in moderation and think long-term goals are the only sustainable ones when it comes to physical health, so to see and feel this pressure pile-up is quite daunting - if it even affects me, I can’t imagine how it’s affected people who struggle with their weight or have histories of disordered eating.'
Jenny says she also recognised the panicked feelings that were spreading on social media and urged women to fight back against them.
'I worry with the amount of women sharing weight loss memes that fad diets will start trending again, and women will resort to entering an unhealthy mindset for their "coming out" body. As someone who’s been on several fad diets from the age of 15 - including BoomBod, BooTea, Special K, Juice Diet, SlimFast and NutriBuddy - I know all too well how damaging they can be, not only for your body but for your mental health.
'Four months seems like a substantial amount of time, but the reality is most of us will yoyo diet over this period of time. I’ve started a fad diet months in advance of a holiday for it to fail, and then to only consume liquids the week before my flight. Dieting for a date is damaging and not the answer.'
So, in case no-one has told you, you're wavering, worried or punishing yourself today - let this article be the reminder that you don't need to do anything to yourself and your body before you see the friends and family that are so desperate to see you. You get to just enjoy the things you've been deprived of for a year.
That goes for your weight, your hair, your face, your eyebrows (that one's a personal note for me) before you're 'unleashed'. And it's probably also worth saying that you don't need to worry if the main thing you've done while locked down is survived and become intimately involved with some Real Housewives. Even if your friend has started a multi-million pound company/written a book/run six marathons.
Surely after being robbed of each other's company for a year, the main thing we've learned is that it doesn't matter how you look on the outside - because social media, Zooms and that fake world where you only have appearance hasn't sustained us. What we've missed is that in person connection, that is what we should be looking forward to. End of story.