Enough already

Before I go off on my rant, I just want to say this:
I am a definite supporter of people putting forth a conscious effort to change over to a healthy lifestyle. I firmly believe that a regular exercise routine and balanced diet is one of the best things you can do for your self esteem, body, (body image), and overall well being. I do *not* have an issue with my own weight, in fact, I exercise on a regular basis and have a healthy diet for the most part. Ok – do we have that out of the way? Sweet.

So I’m friends with a girl on Facebook. We’ve known each other for a long time, and while we don’t hang out with each other, we’ve stayed in contact though social networks over the years. I’ve always looked forward to reading her entertaining status updates, funny anecdotes and seeing pictures of her family on my daily news feed. Over the last two years, this friend has made a huge lifestyle change, and has made every effort possible to shred some extra pounds and just get healthy in general. It’s awesome – she’s lost close to 80 lbs over the course of two years, and seeing the before/after photos of her progress is truly an inspiration to anyone who is going through the same sort of transition, or is looking to make a major change in his/her lifestyle.

Now. I get that she is excited and proud of her achievements and has every right to be – she’s has great success in reaching this goal of hers. HOWEVER. Every status update (with the exception of JUST a few) is about how much weight she’s lost, how ‘running is her life’, and is literally a play-by-play of how this continuing journey is going for her. FOR TWO YEARS. EVERY DAY. If it’s not the status updates, it’s the pictures. If it’s not the pictures, it’s a link to some fitness or weight loss blog/article, if it’s not a link, it’s one of those iphone app pop-ups that says something like “so&so just finished a runtastic run of __km!!”, and if it’s none of those, it’s a pretentious, annoying inspirational quote about running, exercise, or weight loss. She posts INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES, people. So being that there seems to be NO end in sight, I’ve hidden her posts from my news feed. Recently I “unhid” them again, just to see what she’s been up to lately. I’d been feeling a bit guilty about hiding her in the first place, and I’d missed the kind of updates she used to post about – they were funny and amusing. Nothing had changed at all. Same posts, all about the exact same things. So, FB friend, although I genuinely like you, and really enjoy seeing photos of your family and watching your kids grow up (they’re pretty cute), I’m gonna have to keep your shit hidden on FB, ’cause while I’m happy for you, I can’t stand to hear about it one more time. I might actually explode. —We Get It!

This article appears in Jan 26 – Feb 1, 2012.