Gymselfies: Fitspo or Shitspo?

some weeks ago

Ever since social media became even more popular, there has been an explosion in the use of taking selfies, and, in my world, especially gym-selfies. 

On Instagram you get an infinity of results once you enter the specific hashtags that lead to #gymselfies. You get to see muscular, healthy and defined people of all ages who are proudly sharing their amazing body with you.

Personally, I am happy to post such selfies to share my excitement about another transformation of mine, which is basically standing for the work I put into myself at the gym over the last weeks. So the main idea behind gym selfies should be to inspire and motivate other people by showing that if you can reach that physique, everyone can reach the shape you desire.

I also love to scroll though my Instagram or Facebook news feed and have a look at all the amazing bodies from people that trained like hell in the gym and stuck to their diet, which I know can be very tough at some point. I think it's very inspirational if you look at 'normal' people that have reached an amazing physique, people like you and me. The only thing that differs them from everybody else is their dedication and motivation that keeps them going to get what they want. 

But can such gym selfies also harm us? Or even discourage us? 

As several psychologists showed in a research, fitness selfies can lower our self-esteem and we can easily become obsessed with our own appearance as we are constantly striving for perfection instead of progress. Although, this also depends on your character... if you get intimidated easily, well, then I would advise not to look at fitness selfies, because there's a risk that they might lead to a loss of your self-image and get you to go the unhealthy way in order to reach the physique of your role model. 

Actually fitness, or progress, photos exist for as long as personal trainers exists since they also take pictures of their clients from the first week, the 4th week and so on... but with another aim. They take these snaps to make their clients see the progress and to keep them motivated.

So while you are logging your progress, remember also to take before&after pictures. I do it myself and every time I see another transformation it simply motivates me to keep pushing. 

What are your thoughts about fitness selfies? Do they motivate you or discourage you sometimes? Or do you think that it's nonsense and annoying?

Les (Art)istes Bag

Long time no talk, but I have a good explanation... I finally had my exam this thursday so I was kind of busy studying and training the days before. But here I am again. 

Right after my exam I was on the way straight home, grabbed my fitness bag and hit a great pump-session in the gym. This really felt so good after writing the exam. I was feeling finally free again and able to concentrate on nothing but my preparation,posing and training. 

And as this wasn't enough already, my lovely sister asked me to accompany her to the Smets Underground Luxury Party. 

The party was great, but it was an absolute torture for me as they offered so much heavenly foods like Dunkin' Donuts, Popcorn, Chips, Ice-cream and so on. And I was just over there trying to get shredded. Thus, all I had was a small bottle of water , but that's alright only a few weeks to go and I can finally enjoy such things again (in moderation well understood). 

Before leaving, the lovely Fallon H. gave us a small goody-bag and told me that it could be of use for me. And indeed, it is very useful for me... It was a bag by ''Les (Art)istes'' , which I can surely use as a small fitness-bag for my morning cardio sessions. So again, thanks a lot for this bag, I love it! Normally when you have such a bag you only have one big pocket, meaning the whole bag. But this bag has two other pockets, whereby one with a zipper. This makes this bag even more functional as you don't have to rifle through your whole bag to finally find your member-card for the gym haha. 

If you want to see further pictures of my sporty fall-shooting, you are welcome to have a look at the album on my Facebook Fanpage here. (And while you are already on my page, why don't you hit the like-button? hihi)

I wish you all a great weekend and stay tuned, I had another shooting as well. xX

Shred Program

Good evening sweethearts.

Today my lovely boyfriend and I had our first ''shred-check-up'' at our coach's. Well to start with, I didn't made any big progress as we haven't changed that much concerning my diet plan and my training plan. But... my form improved a wee bit more. Sometimes it's better to get a little butt-kick that reminds you that only hard work pays off and that you can't make something out of nothing.

'' No pain, no gain'', right? 

So, concerning my diet-plan... We reduced my protein- & carb-intake a little on low-carb days because we have to decrease my calories a tiny weeny bit to get rid of the last water retentions and body-fat. As far as my carb-days go, we also cut down the carb-&protein-intake, meaning that we replaced the spelt bread with quinoa-puffed-rice-crackers and less quinoa for lunch. 

In terms of training.. pheeww... That's going to be rough for me. I will tell you why: 

Usually I hit a 40-min-HIIT workout after every gym-session, which was already exhausting to be honest. NOW, I have to do a 30-min-HIIT workout right after getting up and BEFORE having breakfast. I don't like that kind of stuff haha. I am such a grouch when it comes to cardio, especially in the morning, and on an empty stomach. So I absolutely have to pull myself together and get through those morning cardio sessions. 

And as if this wasn't enough already, I have to hit a 10-minute warm-up before every gym session (fortunately we reduced the warm-up by 5-minutes) and additionally a 20-min-HIIT after my gym-session. Pooh... Things are getting pretty tough from now on. 

I am already looking forward to the next check-up. I am convinced that I will show better results again now that my program has become even stricter. I will keep you up to date of course. 

Have a great new week and make it big. xX