California Force Fit

For starters, I'm a Chicagoan. Love the big city, men in suits, crazy weather. I can wear all my seasonal clothing in a week. Currently, I've been living in California for almost two years, you quickly notice the new Californians (who lived here for at least 3 to 5 years) change the view of how people present themselves here. No offense to any Californians who were born here or unrelated to this topic, but I feel like I'm walking on a college campus when I'm in LA. Everyone presents themselves in a certain way, which is fine. Their inspirational and creative people, but due to half of the people being on social media, they're given the idea that they are forced to be fit, especially to the millennials and generation x. Being fit has become a trend in my opinion.

Does this force people who live in California to take a second look at themselves and question their appearances or healthy lifestyle?

In my opinion, I say yes, but not saying being healthy is wrong. I'm saying many people are influenced by how someone should look: thin, muscular, etc. They see these celebrities getting too big and judge them right away, just because of he/she has an "ugly" appearance.

Honestly, I feel like it does make you second guess yourself on how you look. I weigh 117 and I'm fit for someone my age (which I won't say LOL). Sure, I went to my doctor and got checked up. He considered me to just gain muscle in my arms since my arms are thin and look like chicken legs. I started lifting weights but slowly lost that mojo after I decided to run, since I enjoy jogging, running and don't mind spending my time outside with nature. But I workout to be healthy, not because of the influences of social media.

I spoke with a friend last month and she felt unhappy with her body. She's been living in California longer than me. She was telling me how the media influenced California and it isn't what it use to be. She can't hang around the beach without seeing "young looking" woman working out on the sand.

Everyone now is posting videos of themselves working out, etc. There was one picture I saw on Instagram of a before and after shot of a young girl sucking in her stomach and caption saying "beautiful." Next to that same picture was her eating ice cream with an actual stomach appearance with the captioning "beautiful," as well. In the comments, people were disgusted how she looked eating ice cream and showing her extra skin. Someone even commented how she was better in the other photo. I can understand if someone wants to be healthy, but shaming other people who don't look a certain way is wrong. We've been told that if you don't look like this you're not beautiful, etc.

States like California and Florida are mostly influenced by the media and are all about living the healthy lifestyle. I can assure you cities like Chicago are not as much influenced by the spring and summer seasons, because they don't last long due to our change of weather.

My argument is simply if you live in the cities that are 100% influenced by the social media and feel like your worth nothing. Don't let that affect you. If you love the way you are and respect yourself, than you don't need to be influenced by the people around you. But, if your unhealthy and want to workout, then be sure you're doing this change for yourself and not for anyone else or what social media will think.