I am lucky because I started my fitness journey with a goal to complete an event. I made a deal with myself that I would not be side tracked by what the scale said or what I looked like in the mirror. My one goal was to work towards performance.

I derive so much satisfaction from discovering what my body can do rather than how it looks. All the aesthetic stuff came as a byproduct of my hard work. Sure it’s fun to get a peek of myself in the mirror every now and again. But it’s not my focus and I don’t have the idealised look that IG models have these days.

I try not to pooh pooh other people’s motivations. Given that, shouldn’t fitness be about yourself? Not killing your self mentally and physically to attain a squat booty just because it’s what everyone else is doing?

Everyone should ask themselves this often - is this activity filling my cup or emptying it?