Not a one-to-one

A statement I could not agree more with on the podcast Maintenance Phase titled “Oprah Winfrey & the Wagon of Fat” is when the hosts, Aubrey Gordon and Michael Hobbs, said a sentence against Oprah’s idea of diet. In 1988, there was an episode of The Oprah Show when she was rolling 67 lbs. of fat onstage. I remember vividly a statement of hers, which Gordon and Hobbs were against. She said, "... If you can believe in yourself and believe this is the most important thing in your life, … because I did it, if Scott did it, if Billy did it, and you can do it…” They argued the statement of Oprah was not one-to-one. According to Oprah’s statement, it seems like she waived the reality that at least she spent almost $1000/month just for the diet product, not to mention the doctor's consultation, treatment, etc. “That’s like people’s rent,” added Hobbs.

I firmly resonate with the statement, particularly from last year, when I struggled with my diet. Many influencers I saw on social media never shared the actual story of their journey. Furthermore, there were a few times when that had an impact on me. On the other day, I was following an Indonesian influencer who had successfully cut off the weight. She told the audience how significant the intermittent fasting was. Later on, I just found out she had also undergone a million treatments to get that shape. Therefore, I stopped to look at other people’s journeys and just focused on mine.

Whatta lovely quote!

Moreover, reality shows such as The Big Loser also intrigued me. It shows multiple challenging journeys. I prefer not to watch because I can hear their feelings—how hard it is to get a shape, how hard it is to achieve a certain number on a scale, or how hard it is to resist the urge to eat. Realty shows have something so close to our daily lives (even though they're not 100 percent similar) that makes a connection with people. I will choose to consume something that does not affect me at all, such as science fiction movies and documentaries, or series that are not coming from my country. I am not a big fan of reality shows; I did not consume them, so it does not affect me.

Conversely, social media exerts a significant influence on my daily life, particularly in relation to the content I consume. The dieting journey was one of them. Hundreds of times, when I saw people’s new appearance, their achievements, or their daily productive activity, I felt drained. I felt like I was useless, less-contributive, and nothing. Many times, I also realize that this is toxic. It kills my mentality. “You are what you eat”. I don’t want to eat something terrible, so I decided not to do so. Therefore, I do a social media detox, especially on Instagram. I have deactivated my Facebook account since a long time ago, and Twitter (I still love this name though), or X platform, for now, is my eternal love because I still consume meaningful content from it. When I do my detox routine, it has only three terms: (1) I saw something or many things that drained my energy; (2) I have a lot of tasks to do in real life, both personal and professional; and (3) I have already shared a lot of things on social media.

My real-life diet! Preparing my lunch every day <3

How does it look?

The practice of abstaining from social media has proven to be effective in my personal life. It was like a moment where I could charge myself physically and mentally. Joseph El-Khoury et al.'s (2020) on “Characteristics of social media ‘detoxification’ in university studies’ research found that 75% of their respondents reported mental health benefits from cutting out social media. On the other hand, social media has a huge benefit. McKinsey (2022) reported that 52% of millennials got emotional support, and 59% of them also got social connectivity from social media. It means, just like what Aubrey Gordon said to Oprah, that what works for me is not one-to-one. I hope you find your "not a one-to-one" journey!