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A woman asked her followers to Photoshop her ‘beautiful’ and the results were shocking

We’re all guilty of a little FaceTune and Photoshop here and there, whether it’s smoothing out our skin or making ourselves a little less bloated- but what would happen if you handed over control of the way you look to strangers?

Dietitian Lyndi Cohen decided to conduct the social experiment by posting photos of herself on Instagram and asking her followers to “Photoshop her beautiful”…but she could’ve never predicted the results would be quite so shocking.

 

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As you may have seen from my previous posts, I did a social experiment 😒 I asked a bunch of strangers to photoshop images of me. And without me asking, they all made me slimmer. They removed my birthmark from my shoulder. They even made my bone structure smaller. They created an image of what they thought was beautiful and healthy – and the result worries me. When all we see is photoshopped images of already slim people – it’s difficult to think of beauty or health as anything else. I tell you my friends… there’s nothing wrong with my bone structure or my birthmark or my stomach or my natural body shape. The problem is that every photo we see is photoshopped, causing us to question whether the girl in this picture, with the stomach rolls is actually healthy. My stomach rolls are not the problem. Our cultures obsession with the thin ideal and photoshop is.⚡️It’s no longer radical for magazines to include a photoshop free cover or shoot in their magazines. I’d love to live in a world where our media does more and where photoshop is the exception, not the rule. 💫 Comment below if a world without constant photoshop would help you feel more comfortable, healthy and confident in your already beautiful body. ❤️

A post shared by LYNDI COHEN(@nude_nutritionist) on Sep 18, 2018 at 12:02am PDT

To the 28-year-old’s surprise, in almost every Photoshop edit her slender size 10 frame was made to look thinner.

In a candid Instagram post, she wrote: “I asked a bunch of strangers to photoshop images of me. And without me asking, they all made me slimmer. They removed my birthmark from my shoulder. They even made my bone structure smaller. They created an image of what they thought was beautiful and healthy – and the result worries me.

“When all we see is photoshopped images of already slim people – it’s difficult to think of beauty or health as anything else. I tell you my friends… there’s nothing wrong with my bone structure or my birthmark or my stomach or my natural body shape.

“The problem is that every photo we see is photoshopped, causing us to question whether the girl in this picture, with the stomach rolls, is actually healthy. My stomach rolls are not the problem. Our culture’s obsession with the thin ideal and photoshop is.”

 

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I’m not plus size. And I’m not model size. I am right in the middle size. ❤️ And I’m wonderfully healthy. I eat well, I exercise often. Yet – we never see bodies like mine, unphotoshopped, in the media. So we go through life thinking that healthy means we need to look a certain way… yet no matter how much you exercise or how little or well you eat – you never end up looking like your expected, you never look like the photoshopped images you see in health magazines or the curated, filtered and posed images on your highlights real. 😒 Happiness is expectations minus reality. So instead of constantly trying to chase a goal that doesn’t exist, I say we change our expectations so that we can finally learn to be happy with what a normal and healthy body can look like. 💕 P.s. see my last post as well 💕

A post shared by LYNDI COHEN(@nude_nutritionist) on Sep 18, 2018 at 12:02am PDT

 

View this post on Instagram

 

I did a social experiment 😒 I asked a bunch of strangers to photoshop images of me. And without me asking, they all made me slimmer. Seeing the before and after photos side by side, you can see how much has been changed. Ah, perspective 🙌. Problem is – in real life – you only ever see the ‘after’ photos. And it’s easy to forget that almost EVERY photo you see in the media is photoshopped. This conditions you to believe you’re never good, pretty or thin enough – so you literally waste your life lying in bed feeling guilty for eating more than you wanted and hating yourself on holidays because you can’t stand how you look in photos. We have to stop chasing a goal that DOESN’T EVEN EXIST. Question: What if you saw more normal, healthy bodies like mine in magazines or on tv or on social media? Would you find it easier to accept your body as it is? I definitely would. Here’s to making the world a better place so that the next generation can spend less time obsessing about food and yo-yo dieting and spend more time being truly healthy and happy within themselves. 💕

A post shared by LYNDI COHEN(@nude_nutritionist) on Sep 18, 2018 at 12:02am PDT

Releasing a series of before and after shots, Lyndi made it clear that Photoshop and body ideals we have as a society are far from reality, and that we should be celebrating our bodies, flaws and all. And as a pro-nutritionist, we trust her opinion, to say the least.

So next time you go to amp up the teeth whitener on your selfie, remember that championing your inner “yes I forgot to brush my teeth this morning” could just earn you 60,000 followers…

Taken from GLAMOUR UK. Read the original  here.

For more health advice, click  here!

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