This Girl Can | The Body Positive Fitness Campaign

New year, new me! And so goes the mantra for most of us when the glutony of the festive season is over and January rears its ugly head telling us it's time for a fresh start at our diet/fitness.

There's nothing wrong with this. In fact this wake up call can be a good time to re-evaluate our health and wellbeing in general. What isn't great is the constant bombardment of diet and fitness ads. Sports and dieting ads for women are particularly problematic, with their potent messages to be thin and skinny and toned, all with a dose of 'you have to look fabulous doing it too'.
Now I'm all for a bit of fitspo to get you motivated but for some, including myself, the pressure to get on the January fitness wagon is awful. These adverts portray a world of fitness and exercise that just doesn't exist in real life...because who seriously comes out of the gym looking like Taylor Swift (unless your Taylor Swift. And I still wanna bet she doesn't look so fab in the middle of an intense pilates session either.

Cue the The Girl Can campaign, a series of health and fitness adverts with a difference focusing on the idea of being active. What marks these ads as different is the use of women of all shapes, sizes, colours, professions, and ages keeping fit. It places it's emphasis on the not so nice effects of exercise (sweat, heat and pain) and gives it a body positive twist. Much like last year's 'Under Armour' adverts with Missy Franklin, there's a lot of focus on strength and the fact that exercise is painful and hard and can get super gross but that's totally ok! The real women in the ads range from a whole Zumba class, to a mother getting her kids involved in easy exercises in her living room, to another woman cycling, and others taking on professional sports too.

The message of the campaign (with a little help from Missy Elliot) encourages women to get their freak on. There's no body shaming here and it doesn't matter what your level of fitness, or what type of exercise you choose to partake in for that matter, you can get moving and get motivated. .

The campaign - set up by the National Lottery and Sport England - has run on national TV here in the UK and there are whole playlists on their Youtube channel too, as well as a number of print ads and a Twitter campaign at #ThisGirlCan.

Personally I want to shake the hand of whoever came up with the idea for this campaign. Self-confidence is often a huge contributing factor for women debating whether to start exercising - myself included. But what This Girl Can shows is who really give a damn? You're exercising. No one has the right to judge you when you're actually taking the steps to look after your own health and well being!

For more info on the This Girl Can campaign, check out their website, Youtube and Twitter feed. And of course, get involved and get your freak on!