Check for nuance

Unfortunately, we are drawn to the simplest and most easily digestible advice. We want black and white, ‘do this not that’, ‘eat this and feel that’ graphics, because it gives us assured actions. Social media also rewards that, with limited caption space and an algorithm that serves you the best performers rather than the most nuanced posts. Unfortunately, no health care is black and white, meaning the real advice tends to be less enticing, littered with disclaimers and warnings and not promising of any real results.

“The number one thing is that there are professional standards and ethics. Anyone going through the training is accredited with a regulatory body, and they have to be held accountable if they violate the profession. So that means the content they’re providing has to come with a caveat,” explains Dr Windgassen.

Write down your ‘shoulds’

“We need to be deliberate in our unlearning, and one way to do this is to be as operational as possible,” says Dr Windgassen. She suggests writing down a list of everything we think we ‘should’ be doing. “This could be exercising a minimum number of times a week or for a minimum number of minutes at a time. This gives you a clear idea of what you’re expecting of yourself, and then you can see how valid or useful they are to you and your life,” she says.

Work out what things on that list make you feel bad or that you struggle to keep up with, and make those things a priority to unlearn. Even as someone who thinks that they’ve got it together when it comes to their health and fitness routine, I felt alarmed when I started thinking about the actions that I hold myself accountable to doing.

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