Check out this Before & After transformation! How to go from that to this in just 3 HOURS!?! That’s right, you read that correctly – 3 hours! All it takes is some Chinese food and a frumpy mindset. If you are thinking “huh, I’m confused?” Rightfully so.
We call this a transFAUXmation. We are accustomed to reading left to right, so you had assumed that the ‘before’ picture was on the left and the ‘after’ picture was on the right. Wrong! I did the ‘ol switcharoo and put the after on the left, which is a big fat no-no.
I bet you also assumed it was after weeks or months of strict dieting. Wrong again! These pictures were taken just 3 hours apart. I didn’t lie to you when I said the pictures were before and after, but I didn’t tell you which was which. Not to be mean, but to show you that pictures don’t always tell the whole truth.
Why did I take these pictures? To prove a point. We need to STOP believing everything we see. We need to stop comparing ourselves to other people. Both of these photos are of me, only a couple of hours apart, and I can tell you that I don’t really recognize myself in either.
Here’s the truth: I didn’t really plan for this to be ‘a thing’. Our gym was having a photoshoot after a 90-day Fitness Challenge. I took part in the challenge, which also coincided with a 12-week cut session (focus was fat loss) with Stronger U, and dropped about 10lbs. I was feeling good about my cut and wanted to reward myself by taking part in the photoshoot. I’ve never done a photoshoot before and had no idea what to expect, so I went in with the attitude of “all I’m looking for is one good shot so I can have a new profile pic”.
I didn’t prepare much for the shoot. I had manipulated my macros for a few days and got my first-ever spray tan. I had never taken fitness photos before and had no idea how to stand or pose. I felt like Ricky Bobby not knowing what to do with his hands. A quick Pinterest search gave me some posing ideas. I had my husband snap a picture at home, so I could see what I looked like before I went to the shoot (this is the picture on the right).
The photo shoot was fun and I felt confident. It was like a celebration for my hard work the previous 90 days, so I decided to continue the celebration with my favorite – Chinese food (all planned in MFP of course!). A quart of chicken & broccoli, a pint of white rice, 10 crab rangoons, and a sleeve of rice cakes later (oh and like 5 fortune cookies), and I was feeling EXTREMELY full! To the point of discomfort. I laid on the floor complaining that my stomach hurt while scrolling through pictures on my phone from earlier. I stopped at one photo and I thought ‘damn, that picture looks good, I wish I looked like that!’ I was so disconnected. That picture was ME. I couldn’t imagine myself as the same smiling person in the picture from just a few hours earlier. That’s when I realized I needed to take another picture, right then and there. I wanted to see the difference that only a few hours and a different mindset can make. I was still in my same clothes but had washed my face and put my hair up. I went back into my sun porch where I took the first picture and snapped another shot (this is the picture on the left). This time I didn’t smile and stood there in a frumpy pose; because that’s exactly how I was feeling. No filters, no photoshop, no trickery; just a big meal and a bad pose. That is all it took to go from that to this in 3 hours.
Even coaches gotta put themselves out there. I posted the before and after photo on the SU Member’s Facebook page with the title “Before and After – Even coaches gotta put themselves out there.” I was purposefully vague. If you were one of the 350+ likes and 30+ comments; thank you. The point of this isn’t to make you feel duped.
We are bombarded with before & after weight loss transformations on Instagram, FaceBook, magazine, and tv. Pictures are a purposeful tool for demonstrating progress when the scale doesn’t reflect body composition changes. Before & after pictures are some of the best evidence we have that demonstrate SU’s success stories. I am by no means saying to not trust the before & after pictures on Stronger U. What I AM saying is; don’t compare yourself to other people’s pictures, don’t compare yourself to another person’s progress, and don’t be too hard on yourself. A picture is just a quick still frame of the life we want others to see.